Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

October 30, 2018 at 8:40 pm.

Floundering Scarlet Knights visit Wisconsin

A week off doesn’t make the dreary Rutgers picture any brighter.

And now the Scarlet Knights have to visit Wisconsin — and play a Badgers team steaming over a loss to Northwestern that dropped them out of the top 25.

“It was a much-needed bye week after eight straight weeks of games,” coach Chris Ash told his regular Monday media gathering. “Gave us a chance to rest and recover a little bit. We were kind of banged up. Hopefully we get some extra guys back for this next game that we hadn’t had. A chance for us to go back and review and reflect on the first eight games, both as coaches and as players.”

But now they have to visit Madison, where the Badgers have been installed as a 30-point favorite to hand Rutgers its eighth straight loss.

“Had a chance to practice three times last week,” said Ash, once an assistant at Wisconsin and returning to Madison for the first time as a head coach. “The focus was on some fundamentals and situation work, as well as some developmental work for some of the younger players. I thought we had good energy, good spirit at the practices and got a lot of good work done and now obviously got an opportunity to recruit a little bit, too.”

The Knights also have No. 5 Michigan, No. 14 Penn State and a game at Michigan State remaining after Wisconsin — NJ.com pointing out Monday that the four opponents are a combined 23-9. And the Knights are 1-13 against those four programs since joining the Big Ten.

Not great for a 1-7 team.

Before the bye, the Knights came close, leading Northwestern 12-7 at the half before falling 18-15.

Isaih Pacheco had a 44-yard touchdown run (his second touchdown in as many weeks) and Justin Davidovicz kicked a pair of field goals in the latest loss.

The Knights are 129th in the country in scoring offense, pass efficiency offense and third down conversion offense, 128th in total offense, 123rd in the red zone … you get the picture.