The Scarlet Knights have an identity. Can it win in the Big Ten?

As Rutgers rolled through its first three games, starting off with a 3-0 record for the third straight year and assuring it will remain undefeated in non-conference play during head coach Greg Schiano’s second stint, it laid out its blueprint to success:

Run the ball. Do not turn it over. Give quarterback Gavin Wimsatt a manageable workload and do not ask him to be a hero. Play elite defense that rarely bends, never breaks and often forces turnovers. Run the ball. Do NOT turn it over. Repeat until the inferior opponent can’t handle any more of what Schiano calls “body blows,” then deliver the knockout punch.

“If you’re winning the game, then you have a chance to continue to do that,” Schiano said. “If you get behind it’s hard to get all those body blows in.”

Rutgers has not trailed once through the first 180 minutes of the season. It has gone up early, nursed its lead and slowly drained the life out of its opponent for three straight weeks. It has allowed just 30 points, run the ball on 66% of its plays (the fifth-highest rate in the country), committed just two turnovers (both fumbles) and 11 penalties (two of which were intentional) and held the ball for 55% of the time (21st nationally).

That was enough to cruise past Northwestern. It was enough to combat comeback attempts from Temple and Virginia Tech, the Scarlet Knights holding both teams off just long enough to wear them out. It will suffice against Wagner, the lowly FCS opponent that is a guaranteed fourth win on their schedule.

Will it be enough to win in the Big Ten, the last-place lock Wildcats not withstanding?

For better or worse, Rutgers should get a good idea this weekend in Ann Arbor, where it will try to upset No. 2 Michigan after coming close twice in the past three seasons. The two-time defending conference champion Wolverines are a significant step up in competition for the Scarlet Knights, the bookmakers marking the visitors as multi-touchdown underdogs.

Will Rutgers be able to get up early on Michigan and hold onto a lead against an offense averaging more points per game (32) than Rutgers has allowed all season? If the Scarlet Knights do fall into their first deficit of the season, do they have the horses to turn it around against the top scoring defense in the country?

Saturday at The Big House, a venue where 18 consecutive road opponents have left with a loss, should be a good litmus test. The picture will become much more clear in October, when Rutgers faces a manageable stretch it will need to win most of in order to clinch its first traditional bowl bid in a decade.

For now, let us look back at Saturday’s 35-16 win over Virginia Tech that served the latest example of Rutgers’ early season winning formula:

Conserving a lead with conservative play-calling?

Holding a 21-3 lead out of halftime, Rutgers opened its first drive of the second half with four consecutive runs, earning a first down before electing to punt when facing a fourth-and-one at their 44-yard line. That drive and final decision set the tone for a third quarter where the Scarlet Knights appeared to go into a shell.

They ran the ball 10 times and threw it twice across three third-quarter drives. The result: three punts, two first downs, one three-and-out and zero points. Virginia Tech scored twice in the meantime, cutting an 18-point deficit to five points with 14 minutes to play. Rutgers went conservative and it cost them — or so it seemed.

Schiano pushed back, responding “no” when asked if he was concerned his team went too conservative in the third quarter. But the numbers from Saturday are tough to combat — excluding the clock-killing final drive, Rutgers ran the ball 19 times and passed it four times in the second half — and especially so considering it seems to be a trend.

Rutgers entered the second half of its first three games with a lead, which it seemingly looked to protect. Across nine drives in the third quarter of those games, Rutgers punted eight times and scored one touchdown on a nine-play, 60-yard drive against Northwestern. The Scarlet Knights ran the ball 32 times and threw it 12 times in that span, a 2.67:1 run/pass ratio.

Fourth quarters have not been any more balanced: when excluding clock-killing final drives in those three games, Rutgers ran the ball 30 times and passed it eight times. Altogether, across three second halves, the Scarlet Knights ran the rock 62 times and passed it 20 times.

What does it mean?

The only conclusion is the obvious one: Rutgers wants to avoid the back-breaking turnovers that plagued it last year at all costs, and if that means shutting things down and going with a vanilla offense that protects the ball above all else, Schiano, Kirk Ciarrocca and company are willing to do so. It has worked pretty well so far.

Gavin Wimsatt: The Good and Bad

Let’s start with the positives of Wimsatt’s performance:

– For the fourth consecutive start, including all three games this season, Wimsatt did not throw an interception. Part of this is due to limited attempts, part of it is due to the low amount of risky throws he’s asked to make, but no qualifier should diminish how impressive this is for a quarterback who struggled mightily with turnovers early on in his career. So long as Wimsatt keeps this aspect of his early season improvement up, Rutgers will always have a chance to win.

– Wimsatt flashed his running ability once again, scoring his second rushing touchdown of the season on another big run and finishing with a career-high 87 yards on the ground on 11 carries. He gained three first downs with his feet, forced a missed tackle and helped his offensive line keep him from getting sacked for the second time this season by evading pass rushers a pair of times.

– He threw two pretty passes to former walk-on Christian Dremel: a four-yard touchdown pass just before halftime and a drop-in-the-bucket throw on the run to convert a first down in the second quarter.

But as good as Wimsatt was in those aspects, his struggles through the air have understandably raised some concerns. His 43.8% pass completion is 2022-esque, and considering all but one of his completions came in the 0-9 yard range, he was unable to take advantage of a Virginia Tech defense that often stacked the box with eight or nine guys. That was most evident when he just overthrew JaQuan Jackson on a deep route down the middle in the second quarter, although the Scarlet Knights could argue that the receiver was dragged down early and a flag should have been thrown.

In Wimsatt’s defense, his receivers did not do him any favors on some of his incompletions. Monangai dropped two passes that hit him on the hands, and while Wimsatt did throw those passes with too much on them, the running back needs to grab them. There were also multiple plays where miscommunication between Wimsatt and his receiver were evident, a persistent issue through the first three games that desperately needs to be cleaned up.

“It’s not just Gavin,” Schiano said. “We got to improve in every area. There was a couple plays where we ran the wrong route so it looked like we were out of sync. Well, we were out of sync. There is a lot that goes into each play.”

But some of Wimsatt’s throws were simply off target. Freshman Ian Strong, who played a career-high eight snaps, was the biggest victim: In back-to-back plays in the third quarter, Wimsatt missed him down the sideline, then underthrew him when he was open for a first down across the middle of the field. Earlier in the game, on a third-and-five in the second quarter, Wimsatt did not appear to see Strong when he was open beyond the sticks, instead sailing the ball way over Dremel’s head.

Ultimately, per Schiano, the quarterback did his job. He did not turn the ball over, he ran the ball effectively and he did enough for Rutgers to win. But to challenge Michigan and the other big boys in the Big Ten, the Scarlet Knights will need him to start stretching the field in addition to taking care of the ball and running it well.

“I was so proud of him the way he took care of the football, the way he ran the ball,” Schiano said. “We know he can do that. The passing game will pick up.”

Offensive line shuffle continues

A unit that rotated plenty through the first two games was forced to make a change from the start, with starting right tackle Tyler Needham ruled out of the game with an injury he sustained against Temple a week prior. He was replaced in the lineup by Kamar Missouri, who took his place against the Owls.

Missouri went on to split duties at right tackle with Taj White, playing 27 snaps each, per PFF. The results were not as even: White graded out much better in pass protection (79.8 vs. Missouri’s 47.4) and almost exactly the same in run blocking (59 vs. Missouri’s 58.9).

The usual rotation at left guard (starter Curtis Dunlap and back-up Bryan Felter) and right guard (starter Kwabena Asemoah and back-up Mike Ciaffoni) continued, with left tackle Hollin Pierce and center Gus Zilinskas the only lineman to play all 50 snaps outside of the two clock-killing run plays at the end of the game.

In all, Rutgers used five different offensive line combinations through its first 12 drives (the 13th were the final two plays):

Despite the consistent shuffling, the unit managed to avoid conceding a sack and committing a penalty for the second time in three games in another strong pass protection performance. They do not get as much credit for the 256 yards on the ground, a majority of which came on chunk plays — six plays accounted for 148 yards (57.8%) and four of its five touchdowns — but averaging 3.9 yards on the other 28 carries is still pretty good.

The praise for the big day on the ground should be shared with Monangai, who had another big day, and the tight ends and wide receivers, who were phenomenal at blocking for their teammates throughout the evening.

– Tight end Johnny Langan made a key block on the Scarlet Knights’ first two touchdowns, taking out two defenders at once on Monangai’s opening score, then helping the running back on a block to open a hole for Wimsatt to run through on his 34-yard score.

– Jackson did not have a catch, but he had a key block on Monangai’s first touchdown.

– Dremel’s initial block after going in motion across the formation helped create space for Wimsatt to run into on his 34-yard score.

Last few things

– Star defensive end Aaron Lewis had his best game of the season, racking up eight tackles, four quarterback pressures and a sack in 60 snaps, per PFF. No play was more impressive than his two-point conversion stop on Kyron Drones, in which he kept up stride-for-stride with the speedy quarterback and then tackled him by the ankle.

The method was not an accident: the Scarlet Knights drill this in practice on a regular basis. So when asked about the play, Lewis smiled wide.

“All I can say is: Sweep the ankle, baby!”

– Safety Flip Dixon had another good game, collecting eight tackles and getting his first interception as a Scarlet Knight with an acrobatic catch. But he probably got away with a late hit on Da’Quan Felton on a 4th-and-12 in the fourth quarter, risking an unneccesary roughness penalty that would have gifted Virginia Tech a first down as it looked to cut into Rutgers’ 28-16 lead.

– There were less than two minutes left, Rutgers led by three scores and had the ball; the game was over. But something still seemed to tick Schiano off.

In this week’s Lip Read Challenge, try to figure out what it was with this clip, where BTN cameras focus on the coach as he screams into his headset.

– Did Pierce get his shoulder pads from the 1992 team’s catalogue, or is he simply sporting a neck roll? Either way, it does stand out.

– Someone please get Greg Schiano a pair of sunglasses. Maybe Deion Sanders could send some of his leftovers from last week?

– Did Michigan send an advanced scout into the Rutgers student section to check out the Scarlet Knights in person? If they did, he did not do a great job of blending in.

– From now on, any complaints, compliments, suggestions, feedback or otherwise for the film review will only be accepted via phone call to our landline. Just know that this is what we look like when we pick up and listen.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust.

Brian Fonseca may be reached at bfonseca@njadvancemedia.com.