UMass Beats Rutgers 37-21 Despite Three Touchdowns from KJ Duff
KJ Duff caught nine passes for 196 yards and three touchdowns, and Rutgers still lost by 16. That is what happens when your quarterbacks throw three interceptions and you fumble once more.
Rutgers struck first, Dylan Lonergan hitting Duff from 4 yards out in the first quarter. UMass tied it at 7-7 within three minutes, when William Watson III found Elijah Faulkner from 21 yards, and the Minutemen never trailed again. Watson threw to Faulkner from 2 yards and to Joseph Griffin Jr. from 31 in the second quarter, and Derek Morris kicked field goals of 30, 52 and 31 yards. It was 30-7 with 7:54 left in the fourth.
Rutgers got going late. Duff's 78-yard touchdown with 7:09 left made it 30-14, and Curtis Kimmons IV answered with a 17-yard run for UMass at 4:27. Duff got his third score, a 6-yarder from AJ Surace, with 1:57 left. Duff scored 18 of the 21 Rutgers points (the kicker, Dane Pizzaro, got the other three).
The turnovers decided it. Rutgers had 319 passing yards but only 30 rushing yards on 25 carries, while UMass ran 39 times for 206 and finished with 403 total yards to 349. UMass also sacked the Rutgers quarterbacks five times. Watson was 19 for 22 for 197 yards and three scores. Rutgers' Lonergan was 16 for 29 for 242 yards and two touchdowns with those three picks, and Kimmons ran 11 times for 78 yards and a score for the winners. Joseph Griffin Jr. needed only two catches for 61 yards and a touchdown.
UMass is 1-0 and Rutgers 0-1. Duff's 46.6 points won him a lot of fantasy weeks, even if it did nothing for his team.