Three takeaways from Rutgers football's blowout win over Wagner
The Rutgers football team defeated Wagner last Saturday by more than 48 points for the second consecutive season.
The Scarlet Knights (4-1, 1-1) dominated the Seahawks (2-3, 2-0) in every facet of the game to earn their fourth win of the season. Here are three takeaways from the blowout victory.
Defense keeps on rolling
Rutgers' goal coming into its home game against Wagner was to pound the Seahawks' offense and put pressure on them any chance it could get. The Knights could do just that, and it started early with two sacks of Wagner's Steven Krajewski.
Junior defensive lineman Aaron Lewis was one of the players in the backfield on both sacks. After the game, he spoke on the "immaculate" defensive start to the contest.
"To have a start like that with the defense and everybody flying around, and every getting to the ball … it just brings the energy of the team up," Lewis said.
Rutgers held the Seahawks to just 106 total yards of offense, 83 on the ground and 23 in the air. The performance caught the eye of head coach Greg Schiano.
"That's a heck of a job," Schiano said. "I felt bad, we gave up a kickoff return. The defense could have had a shutout, which is hard to come by."
With the upcoming conference schedule, the "Dark Side defense" will hope to build off this performance.
The run game shines again
On offense, the Knights totaled seven touchdowns, the first coming through the air from junior quarterback Gavin Wimsatt to senior wide receiver Christian Dremel.
After that, Rutgers' run game took over. Wimsatt was able to rush for 2 touchdowns, and junior running back Kyle Monangai, sophomore running back Samuel Brown V, freshman running back Ja'shon Benjamin and senior running back Aaron Young all found the end zone against Wagner as well.
Monangai scored his sixth rushing touchdown of the season, while Benjamin and Young both scored their first. Brown V scored for the second time since returning from injury this season.
"Obviously, we're all doing really well," Brown V said of the running back room as a whole. "Today, we all got a good amount of carries, executed our jobs. That's just what we've been doing in practice.
Rutgers rushed for 268 yards on 52 attempts against the Seahawks on Saturday afternoon.
One game at a time
The Knights are taking the season one game at a time and do not want to get ahead of themselves after a win. Looking ahead to the seven Big Ten opponents, the road is treacherous.
"It's a long season, and I just got done telling (the team), the rest of the way, it's Big Ten all the way, and what I believe to be the best conference in the country," Schiano said. "It's going to be quite a run, and just as I've told you guys before, we're 1-0 in the Wagner season. We'll take a breath, celebrate it, and then we're on to the Wisconsin season."
The players, including Wimsatt, have the same mindset.
"We just wanted to be 1-0 at the end of the Wagner season," Wimsatt said after the game. "(We’ll) celebrate tonight, get some fixes in tomorrow. Then, we want to be 1-0 at the end of the Wisconsin season. So I think we're just taking it day by day, being intentional with everything we do.
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