Kyle Monangai ran for 132 yards and a touchdown and Rutgers held off Washington 21-18 on Friday night when Huskies kicker Grady Gross missed a 55-yard attempt as time expired.
Rutgers won its Big Ten opener to improve to 4-0 for the first time since 2012. Washington (3-2, 1-1) was playing its first Big Ten road game.
Washington cut it to three with 1:40 left on Will Rogers III’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Denzel Boston and a 2-point conversion pass to Keleki Latu. The Huskies got the ball back with 35 seconds left, with Gross’ attempt to force overtime sailing wide left.
“Our guys are learning how to do it,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “We’re learning one step at a time. They (Washington) are a good offensive football team and they’re hard to tackle. We missed a boatload of tackles, but we made them when we needed to. So, really happy for our guys. I’m proud of the way they fought.”
Washington had a 521-299 advantage in total yards, but missed three field goals, was penalized six times for 69 yards and went 2 for 12 on third downs.