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

2017 Michigan gameday #8: vs. Rutgers

via SBNation

Michigan opened the season with four straight wins by double digits, but since then the team lost a close one to Michigan State, needed overtime to beat Indiana, then suffered last Saturday's shellacking by Penn State.  If ever there was a team I was looking forward to playing this afternoon, it would be Rutgers.

That gif up top tells the story of last year's game (well, most of it--Michigan ended the game with 78), one in which the Scarlet Knights struggled to amass a pair of first downs very late in the game (and went 0/17 on third down) and allowed 600 yards to the Wolverines while picking up just 5 passing yards on two completions and 34 rushing yards in 36 tries.

I don't want to sound like I'm advocating beating up on an inferior opponent like this, but Rutgers fans absolutely deserved that hamblasting last year the way they were talking trash about easily handling the Wolverines and keeping their opponent from stealing New Jersey's best recruits (as they already had in the form of Jabrill Peppers and Rashan Gary).  Hate to break it to you, Piscatawayans, but

via MaizeAndGoBlue

we're in ur base, stealin ur d00dz.

It also doesn't help that there never was much reason to let this tire fire of a program join the conference, but then again, that was largely because of a guy who looks like this:

Anyway, I'm feeling fairly confident that Rutgers will be the cure for what ails Michigan--at least as confident as I can be with this team.  If the coaches adjust the offense enough to minimize the broken passing game, I would think we'll finally get to see some quality playing time for the backups.  And not a moment too soon, as the Michigan faithful are more than ready to see what highly recruited redshirt freshman QB Brandon Peters can offer, which many think has to be better than overwhelmed current starter John O'Korn (who, to be fair, is dealing with a suspect offensive line and somewhat unhelpful receivers).

So on this crisp fall Saturday, which is homecoming in Ann Arbor during the University's 200th year of existence, how about a quick bunch of scores in the first half that leads to experience for the younger guys?  No need for a 78-point pasting this year--I think they've learned their lesson last season, plus I don't think we could score that many points if the game was eight quarters long!  Don't let this one get close, find a new groove, and get the positive momentum going.  And while you're at it, put on a nice show for all the alumni returning to Tree Town this weekend!

Let's.

Go.

Blue.