Rutgers went viral. And not in a good way.

Down three touchdowns in the first quarter at home to New Mexico will do that. Just like they did last week after a slow start against Howard, in came the jokes from all of the national writers.

That’s what happens when you’re a Power Five team getting embarrassed by a Mountain West team at home. What else usually happens? Reality. Bad teams like New Mexico make mistakes and open the door for a comeback. As expected, that’s what happened in Piscataway for the second straight week. Those tweets faded after the first quarter and Rutgers came away with a 37-28 win.

On the season, the Scarlet Knights have been outscored 59-14 in the first quarter. But that has to be the last week of that trend.

Rutgers isn’t good enough to turn it on and turn it off. That much is obvious. Fortunately for the Knights, New Mexico turned it off at the end of the first quarter.

Jawuan Harris took advantage of some bad deep-ball coverage and burned the Lobo secondary. New Mexico fell for a reverse and forgot that Janarion Grant can do everything. Poor tackling led to Robert Martin darting for an 80-yard touchdown. And for some reason, the Lobos committed the cardinal sin and actually punted to Janarion Grant.

Uhhhhh, that’s a bad idea:

Every punter should have to spend Fridays before they play Rutgers writing this on a chalk board:

I WILL NOT PUNT TO JANARION GRANT

I WILL NOT PUNT TO JANARION GRANT

I WILL NOT PUNT TO JANARION GRANT

I WILL NOT PUNT TO JANARION GRANT

I WILL NOT PUNT TO JANARION GRANT

But make it 1,000 times.

B1G teams know better than that. I hope. Punting or kicking to the future Paul Hornung Award finalist is common knowledge in the B1G. As much as Rutgers wants to rely on Grant in B1G play, teams will try and limit his touches as much as possible.

Look at the opposing coaches Rutgers starts B1G play against — Kirk Ferentz, Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh. Those guys lead arguably the most-disciplined teams in the B1G. When their teams take 21-0 leads, they don’t surrender them in a quarter.

Chris Ash starts B1G play with three opponents that are as good, if not better, than Washington. The Huskies turned Rutgers into a one-dimensional offense. Does anyone want Chris Laviano throwing the ball 40 times in a game?

If not for some horrendous New Mexico mistakes, that would’ve happened again on Saturday.

That’s not lost on Ash. He knows that the rugby-style tackling hasn’t taken shape yet. He knows what a defense is supposed to look like from start to finish.

Give the Knights credit. They responded in a situation that would’ve probably doomed them last year. Two straight weeks, they didn’t panic and they found different ways to make plays. It’s much better to go viral in the first quarter than the fourth.

But Rutgers can’t continue to take the first quarter off. If that continues in B1G play, those tweets will come in bunches at game’s end.