Rutgers Demolished by Cincy, But Don't Lose Hope Yet

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The newly expanded Rutgers stadium was filled to its 52,000 seat limit.  The newly added South end zone was teeming with ferocious Rutgers fans ready for the beginning of a new and promising season.

Even the cannon was back. Many people thought it would be gone since the new south end zone seats were put in its usual place.

Unfortunately, none of this or any player on Rutgers could stop Rutgers stadium from becoming the Bearcats' litter box.

The game started out with Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike completing his first six passes to march from their own 20-yard line to the end zone for a touchdown.

The Rutgers defense looked asleep in their first drive without head coach Greg Schiano as defensive coordinator. He relinquished his coordinator job in the summer so he could focus better on the entire team.

The Rutgers offense took the field and also marched down field, taking more than 10 minutes to move the ball and score on Joe Martinek's four yard run.

By the end of the first quarter, Rutgers and Cincinnati were tied 7-7. 

"This is going to be a close game," thought the entire Rutgers stadium.

Little did anyone know what was about to come.

The scoreboard showed a familiar 24-7 score. This was the final score of last year's Labor Day game when Rutgers lost to Fresno State. This year's Labor Day game was worse since there was the same score as last year and it wasn't even halftime.

By the end of the game Cincinnati won convincingly 47-15.

The blame can't be attributed to one player or one unit, but what started it all was the mediocre play of the Rutgers offensive line.

The "best offensive line in the Big East" surrendered four sacks, the first two to quarterback Dom Natale on key third downs.

The run blocking was sad to watch as Joe Martinek had no room to run when trying to go up the middle. He had 15 carries for 54 yards.

“They didn’t show us anything we didn’t expect. I thought we came into the game well prepared,” Senior Center Ryan Blaszyzck said after the game.  “They just played very well. They played better than we did.”

When Dom Natale had time in the pocket, he was decent and led a touchdown drive.  He threw three interceptions while under pressure constantly, due to the offensive line woes.

One interception was a good pass, but it bounced off Tim Brown's hands and into the hands of Cincinnati's Aaron Webster. Another one was tipped and caught by Cincinnati.  The third interception was completely Natale's fault as he threw the ball right into Cincinnati's hands with no Rutgers receiver within 10 yards of his pass.

These interceptions doomed three offensive drives and put Rutgers in a hole they couldn't get out of.

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