Rutgers endures most lopsided loss of season in dreary Michigan State atmosphere

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Within the bowels of Spartan Stadium, a visibly disgruntled Kyle Flood slumped into his seat at the postgame podium and found himself having to answer an all too familiar question.

Is the noncompetitive nature of the Rutgers football team's losses against the Big Ten's upper echelon a concern?

Four times in five games, the Scarlet Knights have stepped onto the field against an elite conference foe and downplayed any notions of talent disparities. But each time, the Knights ultimately found themselves in a position where no snap in the second half mattered.

That reality only magnified in a brisk, slushy East Lansing atmosphere.

No. 10 Michigan State (9-2, 6-1) obliterated Rutgers (6-5, 2-5) in every way Saturday, scoring touchdowns on five of its first six possessions in a 45-3 pummeling — the Knights' most lopsided defeat yet.

Not many expected Rutgers, an inaugural Big Ten member, to win these types of games. Still, persistent blowout losses to the programs it aspires to emulate are an entirely separate issue.

Flood refuses to distinguish the two.

"We coach the games to win," the Knights' head coach said. "We don't coach the games to be close, so every week when we do the game plan, it's to try to put the players in the best position to win one-on-ones and use the matchups to be 1-0."

Rutgers' coaching staff failed in that regard against the Spartans, who exposed the Knights' continuous laundry list of issues.

There were purely botched tackles, such as when running back Jeremy Langford, who dominated with 126 rushing yards and two scores, effortlessly battered through two Rutgers defenders for an 18-yard first-quarter score.

And there were other times when the Knights appeared disoriented, like when senior strong safety Lorenzo Waters misread a 4th-and-5 slant pass that wideout Tony Lippett took up the sideline for Michigan State's first touchdown.

The Knights insisted postgame, though, that they came into the game fully prepared.

"There were a couple times where it might've seemed out of position because we missed sacks, we let the quarterback get loose, and you can't cover forever," said senior linebacker Kevin Snyder. "And then a couple run plays that they scored on, we had guys in position. We just couldn't get guys on the ground. ... At no point did I feel like we weren't prepared or we weren't ready for what they were doing. They didn't do anything special, but they executed very well."

Rutgers' offense couldn't say the same, again allowing an early deficit to snowball to the point where the Knights weren't able to compensate until it didn't matter.

For the most part, running the ball wasn't an issue. Freshmen Robert Martin and Josh Hicks alternated the first few drives and found holes up front, turning their first five carries into 30 yards.

But senior quarterback Gary Nova overthrew receivers and never found a way to exploit Michigan State's nicknamed "No Fly Zone" secondary, which was as good as advertised.

Nova finished 11-of-26 for 108 yards and two interceptions, struggling to cash in on limited openings when his targets went deep.

That reduced Rutgers' passing game to flats and bubble screens. Sustained drives never materialized, and eventually redshirt freshman Chris Laviano replaced Nova in the fourth quarter.

Junior wide receiver Leonte Carroo, the Big Ten's second-leading receiver in yards and touchdowns, recorded only one catch in his least productive outing of the season.

"This offense looks to me to make plays," Carroo said. "When I'm not making plays and we're not running the ball well, it's hard to get us going. It's very frustrating, but we've got to go back to the drawing boards and just continue to practice."

Meanwhile, Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook threw for 205 yards and two touchdowns in the opening 30 minutes — his lone blemish being a fumble on the team's first offensive series.

By halftime, the Spartans nearly tripled the Knights' yardage (334-117) and more than doubled their yards per gain (8.1-3.4). Michigan State even converted seven of eight third downs and its lone fourth-down attempt.

Serving as perhaps the biggest insult of all, the Spartans then faked a 42-yard field goal when leading by 35 points on its opening drive of the third quarter.

And yet, the Knights took solace in their second-half effort level, despite major questions of where this program goes from here continuing to swirl.

"Going forward, this program is going to benefit a lot from these experiences," said senior defensive end David Milewski. "Going on the road in some of these tough environments and playing in these games — it's going to be a learning experience, but I think we're going to really see the benefits of this in the future."

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