Penn State vs Rutgers Betting Odds, Injury Report, and Predictions

Penn State football looks to bounce back on Saturday after the tough Michigan loss last weekend. Looking at betting odds, the Nittany Lions are heavy favorites over Rutgers this weekend, but will they cover? Now that the team is out of the hunt for the College Football Playoff, they set their focus to an NY6 bowl bid. Can Penn State overcome the adversity this week after Mike Yurcich was let go to defeat Rutgers? We will know soon enough as I share my prediction.

Injury Report (Based on the previous week’s official Big Ten availability injury reports)

Penn State:

Alonzo Ford DT – Out for the Season

Smith Vilbert DE – Out for the Season

Landon Tengwall OL – Medical Retirement

Harrison Wallace III WR

Tyler Johnson WR

Jameial Lyons DE

Rutgers:

Chris Long WR

Bo Mascoe DB

Tyreem Powell LB

Naseim Brantley WR

Tyler Needham OL

Joe De Croce OL

Betting Odds:

Spread:

Penn State (-20.5) vs. Rutgers

James Franklin’s Nittany Lions enter Saturday’s matchup as a 20.5-point favorite. Penn State is 7-3 ATS this season. Rutgers is 6-2-2 ATS this season.

Penn State Football Moneyline: -1100

Placing a $1100 bet on Penn State to knock off Rutgers would pay $100. Penn State leads the all-time series 31-2. Penn State is currently on a 16-game winning streak in the series dating back to 1989. Last year the Nittany Lions came away with a dominant 55-10 victory in Piscataway. The last game in Beaver Stadium resulted in a 28-0 win for Penn State.

Penn State Football vs. Rutgers Over/Under: 41

The total has gone over in 6 of 10 games for Penn State to start the season. The total has gone over in 5 of 10 games for Rutgers this season. The total has gone under in 8 of Penn State’s last 9 games against Rutgers.

Penn State football vs Rutgers Game Predictions: (13-4)

This game offers some intrigue in that we don’t know which Penn State team we are going to see. Will it be another struggling performance off a loss like the game against Indiana or will they return to dominance like we saw against Maryland? Rutgers is coming off an abysmal offensive performance against Iowa where they only put up 127 yards. The Scarlet Knights also allowed 402 yards to an Iowa offense that has been one of the worst in all of college football this season.

Penn State should be able to shut down Rutgers offensively so it will just come down to their offensive production. My prediction is that Penn State will start a little slow and pull away in this one late as the Scarlet Knights wear down. This may be a 7-0 game at halftime and then we see Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton get going in the second half to open the scoring up.

Penn State should cover the 20.5-point spread this week according to my prediction despite the unpredictability of the offense. The defense has a real chance to put up a shutout given the offense doesn’t give away short fields. The under is also the play in this one as the only way this one is higher than 41 is if Rutgers scores at least double-digit points. An unlikely occurrence with the Penn State defense.

Prediction:       Penn State 28     Rutgers 0

Big Ten bet of the Week: (5-5)

Maryland vs Michigan (-19) 3:30 pm ET BTN

Make that four straight weeks that the Big Ten Bet of the week has hit with yet another Iowa under. This week we turn our attention to College Park, Maryland. Maryland had to scrap out a close win last week in Nebraska but had been on a 4-game losing streak before that. While Michigan didn’t throw much last week against Penn State, the Maryland defense is much worse and will most likely get gashed more by the Wolverine run game. This score will end up looking like something similar to that 51-15 beatdown that the Nittany Lions put on the Terrapins two weeks ago.

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