With just over three minutes to play and his team trailing by three touchdowns on Saturday against Illinois, Rutgers offensive coordinator John McNulty called for a trick play.

The Scarlet Knights were knocking on the doorstep of the end zone, stuck at the Illinois 4-yard line and facing a second-and-goal situation.

McNulty called for a throw-back lateral to an offensive lineman. It was a play, he said, that the Scarlet Knights installed into the game-plan earlier in the week and ran successfully.

Quarterback Art Sitkowski was charged with delivering the backwards pass to right guard Jonah Jackson, who presumably would be able to walk into the end zone after hauling in the lateral.

The trick play failed miserably. Sitkowski took the snap, rolled left, then turned around and threw his backwards pass to Jackson. The ball sailed out of Jackson's reach, landing on the turf for a would-be fumble before rolling harmlessly out of bounds.

On the ensuing play, Sitkowski's pass was intercepted by an Illinois defensive back and the Illini then ran out the final seconds of their 38-17 triumph.

McNulty was pressed on the play call Monday, and the Scarlet Knights' play-caller said he simply wanted to reward his charges with a scoring opportunity after the offense had mustered just 17 points in 75 plays to that point.

"I think we were trying like hell to score,'' McNulty said. "You're on the 4 (yard line) and I figured this is a way we could score. If (Sitkowski) gets it to (Jackson), he walks in.''

It actually wasn't the first time that McNulty called a variation of the play in a game for Rutgers.

In a loss at Louisville to close the 2007 regular season, McNulty called for Rutgers quarterback Mike Teel to execute the throw-back pass to offensive lineman Jeremy Zuttah. That play worked, as Zuttah scrambled for a 13-yard gain.

In the 2008 PapaJohns.com Bowl, McNulty put a wrinkle on the lateral-to-a-lineman play. Teel threw back to tackle Anthony Davis, who then attempted a pass that fell incomplete.

"We should've just let (Davis) run,'' McNulty said Monday, recalling the Teel-to-Davis double pass. "(Davis) probably would've scored.''

Because of the point in the game, with Rutgers needing a miracle for the ages to rally for a win, McNulty understood calling for the trick play left him open for a second-guess.

He compared it to leading a game by 12 points with a minute to go and the head coach calling him to come up with a 2-point play. "I'm just going to hand it off (because) I'm not going to run my (best) 2-point play here,'' he said.

But because he saw the Scarlet Knights working hard to score, McNulty said he believed the gamble was the right call at that point.

"Those guys were killing themselves out on the field to try to score, so I wasn't going to sit there and say, 'Hey guys, I just figure we'll wait until next week if we get there.' I think we owed it to them,'' he said. "We practiced it a bunch. I think those guys have to know we weren't just talking about it -- we could use that play. ... For as hard as those guys had worked for (70)-whatever plays and they had gotten down there before and kicked a field goal (with 5:15 left). And now we're down there again and we're flailing away. I figured, 'Let's just go with what we have. They deserve to score. We'll figure something out for those other games.'

"Unfortunately it was a little high; even if he walked over and picked it up I think he still could've scored; Unfortunately it didn't just work out.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.