PISCATAWAY, N.J. — After a much-hyped win at Arkansas, and week of being patted on the back and ranked in the polls, Rutgers easily could have come out flat yesterday against Connecticut. Instead, it came out and flattened the rival Huskies, a dominant 19-3 win that was a blueprint for Scarlet Knights football.
The No. 22 Knights stuffed the run and ran the ball themselves; they protected their quarterback and pressured Connecticut’s quarterback nto four turnovers. And when the contest between the Big East’s top two defenses was over, it was no contest at all.
In front of scouts from the Orange, Russell Athletic and Liberty Bowls, the Scarlet Knights picked off four passes and recovered a fumble to smother their most bitter league rival in front of 50,870 at High Point Solutions Stadium.
“It’s exciting,’’ said coach Kyle Flood. “When you can make teams one-dimensional, that’s when that happens; it’s like an avalanche.’’
Flood’s nation-leading run defense held UConn (3-3, 0-1) to just 53 yards on the ground, had a sack, five tackles for losses and even ran an interception back for a touchdown, safety Wayne Warren’s weaving 25-yard return for the final margin.
“At Arkansas [our secondary] got gutted, and we weren’t proud about it, so some of the drills we’ve been doing over the week paid off in the game,’’ said Warren. “I saw the ball floating in the air and went and got it, tried to make a play.’’
Rutgers (5-0, 2-0 Big East) is off to its best start since 2007, and if the Knights didn’t quite avenge last year’s 40-22 loss at UConn that cost them a share of their first-ever league title, they did show they at least had learned their lesson. The haughtiness and hubris that cost them that game was replaced by a workmanlike mentality.
“Yes, definitely. It humbled us a lot,” said running back Jawan Jamison, who carried 28 times for 110 yards. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves. That could’ve happened again, but it wasn’t the case. We stayed humble.’’
It was Jamison’s sixth straight 100-yard game, and it came against the Big East’s No. 1 overall defense. The last time he failed to hit the century mark? When he got hurt in last year’s UConn loss, a defeat the Knights made up for yesterday.
The Huskies benched running back Lyle McCombs for the first quarter after he was arrested and charged with second-degree breach of the peace Friday, accused of pushing and spitting at his girlfriend. Rutgers held McCombs to 12 yards on a dozen carries, and held UConn to just 244 yards.
Rutgers led 6-3 at the break, and after mustering just 108 yards in the first half the Knights put together an 84-yard touchdown drive the first time the offense touched the ball in the second half.
Wide receiver Mark Harrison ran through tackle attempts by Blidi Wreh-Wilson and Andrew Adams for a 14-yard touchdown and a 13-3 lead with 9:09 left. Warren put it away with his score.
“We’re gonna keep going out there and … showing the world what we’re capable of doing,’’ linebacker Khaseem Greene said. “We just play with a different type of attitude, a different type of toughness. We’re sharks in the water and we smell blood.’’
Greene, who had the Knights’ fourth and final interception on UConn’s last possession, was awarded the game ball to in turn give to his father Raymond, seeing his son play live for the first time due to a lengthy incarceration.
“That really held on my heart and that really showed me the type of place I came back to for my senior year,” Greene said. “It was special to be a part of this and it meant a lot to me.’’