PISCATAWAY - At MAC Media Day on July 24, league commissioner Jon Steinbrecher announced he had provided each of his 12 schools with a MAC-themed Jolly Roger flag.

The idea was to wave that flag each time a school did something significant, like defeating a Power Five program.

Rutgers football: A total embarrassment

Speed ahead to Saturday. After Buffalo pounded Rutgers, 42-13, at HighPoint.com Stadium, Bulls linebacker Nicco Ruggiero took said flag and waved it in front of Section 112, where a strong showing of Bulls fans spent their afternoon.

Ruggiero's flag-waving was the final nail in the coffin. The Bulls, a MAC-contending Group of Five program, took a $900,000 guarantee from Rutgers, then ran roughshod over the Scarlet Knights, who found a new rock-bottom on Saturday afternoon.

Since a season-opening win over Texas State, Rutgers has been manhandled, getting run over by No. 4 Ohio State, Kansas, and now Buffalo. In those three games, opponents have outscored the Scarlet Knights, 149-30.

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There are more questions than answers right now, but in trying to make sense of the wreckage, here are five takeaways, followed by five quotes.

1. Art Sitkowski, now what?: With a vanilla game plan designed to limit turnovers, not to mention risk, Art Sitkowski was ineffective. The true freshman went 6-for-13 for 39 yards. This, after Ash refused to publicly commit to him as the starter after the Kansas debacle and as ensuing game week wore on.

With 4:30 to play in the first half and the outcome already decided, Rutgers inserted Gio Rescigno, and predictably stayed with the same vanilla, risk-free plan through the second and third quarters. The question now becomes, what does Ash do with Sitkowski?

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Give Sitkowski points for self-awareness. Addressing reporters for the first time since Sept. 1, the Old Bridge native was asked postgame if he thinks he has done enough to start. He bluntly answered no. As he did after Kansas, Ash said Saturday he will continue to evaluate the position.

There will be no bowl game this season, so there wouldn't seem to be a real benefit to starting Rescigno, who is a redshirt senior and has eight games left in his career. You need to keep trying to get Sitkowski better, because like it or not, he is the long-term answer here. If Sitkowski does not start against Indiana, it speaks to a big-picture problem, which no one thought was coming this fall, or at least not this early.

2. If Gio does start against Indiana........: We have addressed this before, but with Rescigno seemingly closer to starting now than at any point this season, it bears repeating.

Ash having Rescigno as his No. 2 was always a huge plus for the third-year head coach. Rescigno has never won a preseason quarterback competition, but his number was called each of the last two seasons after the starter was deemed ineffective. Rescigno has started 12 games over the last two seasons, so if he is asked to start against Indiana, Rescigno will not shrink at the opportunity, and Ash knows what he is getting from his backup, good, bad or otherwise.

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3. Johnathan Lewis is in no man's land: The segment of the fan base screaming for Johnathan Lewis is probably wasting its time.

The former St. Peter's Prep star saw action late against Texas State and hasn't been heard from since. The last three games has been no-doubt blowouts, and Lewis has been MIA for all of them.

Ash has acknowledged Lewis is the No. 3 quarterback. It is hard to envision him getting any meaningful snaps at this point. If he can't get a garbage-time look, that should tell you what you need to know about his standing in Ash's eyes at this point.

4. R.I.P to this season, for all intents and purposes: I stand behind the thinking that there were six winnable games on paper before this season began, Kansas and Buffalo among them.

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We are past that now. There will be no bowl game, there may not even be another win if Rutgers can't get it together for Indiana and Illinois over the next two weeks at home. Losing to Kansas meant losing out and 1-11 were on the table. That notion is only cranked up after getting rolled by Buffalo.

The Scarlet Knights are now playing for the future, figuring out who can help and who can't. That of course includes the most-important position on the field.

Speaking of which...

5. One big difference between the Kansas and Buffalo losses: At Kansas on Sept. 15, a lot of Rutgers' problems were self-inflicted. Sitkowski was picked off three times, Jonathan Hilliman lost a fumble, so did Raheem Blackshear.

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Turnovers were not the problem on Saturday against Buffalo. The Bulls simply played well. Their defense was very good, especially in the red zone, where Rutgers had to settle for a pair of first-half field goals. Buffalo converted on third down, it was opportunistic in hitting a host of chunk plays, and its quarterback, Tyree Jackson, and top wide receiver, Anthony Johnson, both looked like they will play on Sundays.

The 42-yard first-quarter touchdown pass from Jackson to Johnson, in which the latter threw across his body to a streaking Johnson was the most-impressive play of the day. An absolute dime, which drew an "ooh" here, and an "ahh" there in the press box.

Buffalo is sneaky good. It has that win over Temple, it can win the MAC East. The Bulls were a touchdown favorite on the road Saturday. Knowing all of those things, watching a Group of 5 team pick apart a Big Ten team in its own building was jarring, not to mention an indictment on Rutgers and any perceived progress it has made under Ash,

Five quotes

"Just keep working. I mean, that's it. The process can be a painful one. It can be one that's not a lot of fun. It's not where any of us wanted to be at this moment. It is where we're at and we've just got to keep going back to work." — Chris Ash when asked where his program goes from here.

"I've got nothing but 100 percent faith and trust in John (McNulty). He has coached a lot of football at the highest level. He knows how to structure an offense, he knows how to develop players, call plays, and there's zero good that would come out of my trying to call offensive plays." — Ash when asked if he needs to take more ownership of the offense. Ash, who has a defensive background, said he would evaluate where Rutgers is defensively.

"No. No, but you have to work hard, know what I mean? I have to do a lot more, I have to play a lot better, I'll tell you that. I owe these guys a lot more, I owe this coaching staff a lot more. Gotta play a lot better." — Art Sitkowski, on if he has done enough to keep starting

"Those reps are priceless. In-game reps are priceless. You've got fans, you've got guys (defenders) coming around, those are priceless. You can't simulate those in practice, you can't simulate those in the offseason, so those reps are truly priceless." — Sitkowski on the difficulty of learning on the fly as a true freshman.

"When I go in the game, I try to relay my emotions, how I'm playing to rest of the team. I think it's important. I try to keep the team confident, keep the team going, I've been doing that since I came in a couple years ago, and I'm going to keep doing that and see where it goes." — Gio Rescigno on if he can provide a spark at quarterback.

Staff Writer Josh Newman: jnewman@app.com; @Joshua_Newman