With the bye week now in the rearview mirror, the Scarlet Knights will be back in action this Friday night when they take on the Washington Huskies in Seattle. The odds for this game have been released, and according to FanDuel, Washington is currently favored by 9.5 points. The line opened at Washington -10.5 but quickly shifted slightly in Rutgers’ favor. This is still the largest that Rutgers has been an underdog by a significant margin.
After two straight Big Ten losses, the temperature around
the program and fanbase is hot right now, and the Scarlet Knights are looking for a reset victory before the schedule gets even tougher. This game is also likely the last shot for Rutgers to make a push for bowl eligibility, with only Maryland and Purdue being the other “winnable games” left on the schedule; both of those teams also look much improved from last season.
However, it will not be an easy feat for the Scarlet Knights to beat Washington on the road. One week after falling to #1 Ohio State 24-6, the Huskies rebounded across the country at an upstart Terrapins team, coming back from being down 20-0 to stun Maryland 24-20 when the final whistle blew. Despite not scoring until late in the third quarter, Demond Williams Jr. led three fourth-quarter touchdown drives, with Denzel Boston, Dezmen Roebuck, and Jonah Coleman scoring one touchdown each.
The Huskies’ defense prevented Maryland from answering back, holding Malik Washington and the Terps’ offense to a three-and-out on one possession and six plays on the next, before cornerback Ephesians Prysock purposely dropped an interception on fourth down to allow the Huskies to run out the clock with a long field ahead of them. Washington improved to 4-1, with the Terps falling from the unbeaten ranks to the same record.
Last season, the Scarlet Knights shocked the college football world (and their own fans) by defeating Minnesota after its bye week. The Gophers had won four straight, including a victory over then #16 Illinois, while Rutgers had gone 0-4 in October, and fans had presumed that the season was lost.
That was not the case, as the Scarlet Knights used that win to have a resurgent November, with the defense having rebuilt its scheme from scratch, while the offense came to life in a way that Rutgers fans had not seen in a long while. Even the two losses to a ranked Illinois team and Kansas State in the Rate Bowl were shootouts that showed the team’s offensive progress and ended up being a teaser for this season.
The hope is that Rutgers can do the same thing this year, shock the world and their own fanbase with a resurgent win at Washington that would inspire some confidence for the homecoming matchup against Oregon the following Saturday. If not, this season could be completely lost for the Scarlet Knights.
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