2018 Michigan gameday #10: at Rutgers

Yeah, I'm not gonna take this week's gameday post too seriously because the opponent definitely doesn't warrant any effort on my part.  Michigan will be heading east to New Jersey, home of a number of their best players, for a 3:30 game against 1-8 Rutgers.

The Scarlet Knights opened their season with a 35-7 win over Texas State, but since then they've lost eight straight with an average score of 36-12.  They managed to hang in there for a couple one-score losses in conference play, but realistically they've been awful.  Their QBs have combined for four TDs and 17(!) interceptions.  Michigan fans have created a term for the hamblasting above, in which the opposition had fewer yards than the Wolverines had points; they call it a "Rutger".

So let's ignore the cupcake and talk about the Wolverines, whose record is the inverse of Rutgers' (8-1) and have climbed all the way to #4 in the playoff rankings.  Convincing wins like last week's demolishing of Penn State will do that for you.  That 42-7 victory marked the third straight week Michigan faced a ranked opponent and beat them by two scores.  In fact, if you add up the three games with PSU, Wisconsin, and MSU, you get a score of 101-27.

Michigan's rolling and that freight train isn't stopping this week.  The real victory would be getting out of Piscataway healthy, with a bonus mission of reps for the backups.  Then game 11 with Indiana looms, a Senior Day matchup that should go the way of the Wolverines.  They have a very good chance of going into Columbus at 11-1 playing for a spot in the conference championship, and pending the result of the Buckeyes' game in East Lansing this afternoon that may not even be a must-win.  November football is once again high stakes here in Ann Arbor and I'm loving it.

LET'S GO BLUE