Rutgers Football: 5 Things We Learned from Rutgers vs. Army

Rutgers had a lot of things break its way across the Big East this weekend, and was set in position to battle for the Big East championship in the coming week, but nearly, didn't take of business in its non-conference game with Army at Yankee Stadium.

The Knights struggled with a game Army team for most of the afternoon, and battled itself on the offensive side of the ball.

After seeing Army with the ball twice near the goal line, with a real shot to go up multiple scores, Knights fans were left to think, "What is going on?"

The game was undecided in the fourth quarter until the Scarlet Knights were able to pull away from Army to put up a final score of 27-12—not as much of a rout as the score would indicate.

Here are five things we learned about RU this weekend...

1. Rutgers Is Not Good Enough to Win on Talent Alone

Rutgers found itself tied with Army 6-6 at the half, and the game was undecided until the fourth quarter.

RU was clearly the faster, bigger, and more talented team, but Rutgers couldn't overpower Army on Saturday.

The problem is, for as much talent as RU has, it is too inconsistent on offense to blow teams out.

The defense was pretty effective: stopping Army twice in goal to go situations, and allowing just one touchdown on the day.

Other teams would have won the game 44-12 or something like that, but RU made too many mistakes on offense, and didn't rush the ball effectively enough to overpower the Black Knights.

2. Rutgers Doesn't Have a Number 1 QB

Watching Chas Dodd Saturday, you can see glimpses of the talent this guy has.

He has good feel in the pocket, and doesn't look down to avoid the rush.

However, he still makes a lot of mistakes that will cost you points and ultimately cost you games when RU steps up to play teams like Cincinnati and UConn with the Big East title on the line.

RU had opportunities early to get ahead of Army and play with the lead, but two interceptions cost Chas Dodd and the Knights. 

3. Sanu Is a Special Player

OK, we didn't learn this on Saturday, but we saw again why Mohamed Sanu is Rutgers football.

He hauled in 13 more passes on Saturday, and set the Big East single-season receiving record with 94 catches on the year—he still has two more regular season games!

Enjoy this guy while you can Knights' fans. 

4. Rutgers' Special Teams Is a Great Unit

Army made a conscious effort to avoid kicking to Jeremy Deering who changed the course of last week's game for RU against USF.

But, it was Rutgers' punt-block team that made the difference this week.

A hallmark of the Schiano era, Rutgers blocked yet another kick this weekend.

This one was a game-changer.

With RU with the slimmest of leads, 13-12, a bevvy of Knights defenders got through the Army line and Wayne Warren took advantage.

“I could tell that the guard wasn’t really respecting his gap,” Warren said in his postgame interview. 

He bolted through the line, and rejected the Army punt attempt.

Jordan Thomas scooped it up, and the speedster raced to the end zone to put the Knights up eight points.

San San Te continues to be inconsistent.  A week after making the biggest kick of his career, he missed a pair of PATs and a field goal attempt—he struggled with the field conditions. 

5. San San Te Continues to Be Inconsistent

San San Te continues to be inconsistent.  A week after making the biggest kick of his career, he missed a PAT and a field goal attempt.

On his three made PATs, he pulled them barely inside the left upright.

He struggled with the field conditions—slipping on his first PAT attempt, and that seemed to hurt him for the day.

When he misses early, it seems to weigh on him as it did in the Louisville game and parts of the Syracuse game.