Rutgers 41, Navy 24

It wasn’t as smooth a game as I would have liked. There were far too many penalties for holding and pass interference at critical moments. Navy drives were sustained by those penalties when they should have been stopped. Rutgers scores and/or big gains were called back because of them. I’ll confess, that the few times they ran replays on the penalties (something ESPN did not do that often enough), the calls appeared questionable.

However, the Scarlet Knights’ defense made three interceptions when Navy was forced to go to the air. Two of the interceptions were in the end zone to ending Navy drives and the other provided mike Teel a short field to work with and led to an RU score.

Ray Rice made a credible case for Heisman consideration. He rushed for a net of 175 yards and 2 touchdowns on 37 carries and caught 3 passes for 40 yards and another TD. Early on he became the leading rusher in RU history surpassing Terrel Willis (1993-95; 3,114 yards). It was Rice's 17th career 100-yard game.

Mike Teel threw his first interception of the season and his first in 125 attempts (a pass that went off the fingertips of the receiver into a Navy defenders arms), but completed 14 of 19 attempts for 266 yards and 3 TDs.

Tiquan Underwood had another excellent game catching 6 passes for 104 yards, while Kenny Britt caught 3 for 99 yards and a TD.

Jeremy Ito converted all 5 PATs and made two field goals of 28 and 20 yards. He also punted for the first time this season and, although it was short in yardage traveling only 37 yards, it pinned Navy down on the 3-yard line. It was actually a “do over” RU lined up as though to go for a field goal and Ito took tha direct snap, punted the ball and it rolled dead on the 3. But RU was called for a penalty and they had to do it again. This time, in punt formation, Ito sort of side-kicked (is that a word) the ball, taking two or three steps to his right before kicking it almost like a soccer kick. It again rolled dead at the 3-yard line. I don’t know if this will work against some of the bigger lines out there, but it worked against Navy.

For the game, Rutgers generated 476 yards, while Navy, using their option offense, totaled 289, nearly all of it on the ground.

For the full story and stats go here.

Next Saturday, Rutgers (2-0) will face the Spartans of Norfolk State at Rutgers Stadium where RU now has a nine game winning streak.