Penn St. vs. Rutgers Pick
Will No. 8 Penn State continues its offensive surge on Saturday when it faces Rutgers at 8PM ET?
According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, Penn State is heavily favored on the road, as the Nittany Lions are getting odds of -28 points against Rutgers. The over/under total for the contest is listed at 57 points. Penn State has won nine straight in this series and the two have hit the under in their last two meetings.
Penn State continues to climb up the playoff rankings thanks to a six-game win streak. The Nittany Lions beat Indiana on the road last week, 45-31, to move to 8-2 on the season and 6-1 in the Big Ten. Penn State has hit the over in eight of 10 games this year as well thanks to an offense that is scoring a lot lately. Penn State has scored at least 41 points in three straight and is now averaging 35.5 points and 414.4 yards per game on offense. PSU has a solid run game behind Saquon Barkley, who has 1,113 yards and 13 touchdowns while QB Trace McSorley has thrown for 2,390 yards and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 304 yards and six more scores. Defensively, Penn State is giving up just 26.1 points and 373.1 yards per game.
Rutgers is arguably the worst team from a power conference in college football. The Knights have lost seven straight to fall to 2-8 on the season and 0-7 in the Big Ten. They are coming off a 49-0 loss to Michigan State which was their fifth Big Ten game being held to 7 points or less. Still, Rutgers has hit the over in six games this year due to allowing 38 points and 444.5 yards per game. They really struggle against the run, allowing 251.3 yards per contest. On offense, Rutgers is averaging just 17.5 points and 296.1 yards per game. The team has went with Giovanni Rescigno the last three games. He has thrown for 638 yards and five touchdowns with five interceptions, but had just 40 yards against Michigan State. Robert Martin is the leading rusher with 547 yards and a touchdown.
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This game comes down to Penn State and how much it can score because Rutgers is certainly not going to put up a lot of points. The Knights can barely move the ball right now, let alone score in double figures. Penn State isn’t a great defensive team, but good enough to stop Rutgers. The Nittany Lions should also run the ball quite effectively against Rutgers, but I don’t know that I see them putting up close to 50 points, which they will need to do to hit the over.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK 12 PICK: PENN STATE/RUTGERS UNDER 57