PISCATAWAY – Sixty-four seconds.
That was all the game time it took for Rutgers football to go from the cusp of a memorable, historic victory for the program to a disappointing, stinging defeat.
Sixty-four seconds.
With 1:08 remaining in the fourth quarter, quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Monangai that put Rutgers up by one.
With four seconds remaining, Illinois quarterback Luke Altmeyer threw a 40-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass to Pat Bryant, who eluded several Scarlet Knights defenders and crossed into the end zone for a touchdown that ultimately sent the Illini to a 38-31 victory Saturday at SHI Stadium.
And in those 64 seconds?
One decision that backfired.
In the end, Rutgers was left with a heartbreaking loss. This defeat certainly won’t ruin the season – the Scarlet Knights are still bowl bound, and they still have a chance to beat a very mediocre Michigan State team in the regular-season finale to earn a program-defining seventh win.
But in a season that’s included a little bit of everything, Rutgers has its latest setback that it needs to quickly shake off and move on from to give itself its best chance to close this season out on a high note.
“It’s big-time football,” said running back Kyle Monangai, who ran for 122 yards on 28 carries. “They made a great play at the end of the game. I think we played our hearts out to the very end, even that last play. Illinois did the same, they’re a great team. The chips fell their way today.”
Momentum shifted all game long. At halftime Rutgers looked poised for a win that could’ve marked its first victory over a ranked opponent in 15 years, ending a streak of 40 consecutive losses against such teams.
Then Illinois fought back in the second half.
It held a 30-24 lead when Rutgers was driving late in the fourth quarter. The Scarlet Knights faced fourth-and-10 from the Illini 40 when Kaliakmanis scrambled for a 15-yard gain to extend the drive, and three plays later he hit Monangai for the 13-yard touchdown pass that put Rutgers up 31-30.
The Scarlet Knights’ defense just needed to stop Illinois.
It couldn’t, though it very nearly did.
The Illini had fourth-and-13 from the Rutgers 40. Illinois coach Bret Bielema sent his kicker out to attempt a 58-yard field goal – into the wind. He didn’t come close, except Greg Schiano called timeout as the ball was being snapped. That negated the miss.
Bielema then sent his offense back out onto the field. Then came the game-winning touchdown.
Schiano said he regretted the timing of the timeout, not the timeout itself.
“Maybe I should have done it before he kicked the ball, so it wouldn’t have told them, ‘Oh, geez, that wind is strong, we can’t make that kick,” Schiano said. “But we had to make sure we went over what we were doing. I said, ‘We have a timeout, there’s no more media timeouts, so we’ve got to go. So that’s all right, we’re going to call a timeout here in a second.’ But again, you do it and win the game, it’s the right call.”
In this case, the call backfired.
In the end, it was more adversity for a football team that’s experienced plenty of it this season.
Four-straight wins followed by four-straight losses. Injury after injury. A defense that had fallen apart only for coordinator Joe Harasymiak to rebuild it so it could thrive during a two-game winning streak that clinched bowl eligibility.
Now Rutgers has to bounce back. Again.
Because against Michigan State on Saturday in East Lansing, it will have another chance to earn a seventh regular-season win for the first time in program history.
It will have a chance to secure four Big Ten wins for the first time in a season.
The Scarlet Knights have bounced back in a big way this season.
They need to do it one more time.
“I think the young guys learn from it,” Monangai said. “It’s a lot of their first-time experiencing something like this. For them, we just kind of guide them on how to deal with things, the highs and lows of the season and just how to keep going back to work after a win or a loss.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Rutgers football well prepared to bounce back from Illinois loss
