Rutgers Scarlet Knights (5-0, 1-0 in Big East) +2 ½, O/U 45 at Navy Midshipmen (5-1), 1:30 p.m. Eastern Saturday
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
A couple of teams with just one loss between them meet when the Rutgers Scarlet Knights visit Navy’s Midshipmen Saturday afternoon in Annapolis.
Rutgers comes into this game undefeated at 5-0, while Navy’s only loss thus far is a 24-23 OT decision to Tulsa three weeks ago.
The Midshipmen lead all of Division 1 in rushing at 351 yards per game; Rutgers ranks 10th at 208 RYPG.
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The Scarlet Knights opened their season by beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill 21-16, then trounced Illinois 33-0 in Jersey. Rutgers then beat Ohio 24-7 and Howard 56-7 before sneaking by South Florida 22-20 in Tampa as four-point road favorites two weeks ago. The Knights outrushed the Bulls 226-92 and held the ball for 37 minutes, but were lucky the game didn’t go into overtime; USF scored in the last minute to pull within two points, but dropped the two-point conversion pass.
Rutgers, which had last week off, has outrushed every opponent this season by a per-game average of 208-74.
Navy began its season by beating East Carolina by five points and Massachusetts by 1, then pounded Stanford in NoCal 37-9. But the Middies fell to Tulsa on a blocked extra-point attempt in OT. Navy then beat Connecticut 41-17 and, last week, defeated Air Force 24-17 in Colorado Springs as 2 ½-point road underdogs. The Middies returned a fumble for a touchdown in the first quarter, which proved to be the difference in the game, and outrushed the Falcons 317-193.
On the season, Navy is outrushing opponents by an average of 351-130. And the Midshipmen have not only outrushed each of their opponents this season, they out-grounded all of their opponents last season, too.
Rutgers beat Navy last season 31-21 as 6 ½-point home favorites. The Knights led 14-0 right off the bat, but the Middies trailed just 24-21 in the fourth quarter. Rutgers then secured the cover with a TD with six minutes to go in the game. Navy outrushed the Knights 207-114, but committed three turnovers to none for Rutgers. The game stayed under its posted total of 55.
This season, Rutgers is 2-1-1 against the spread, Navy 3-2.
The Knights returned seven starters on both offense and defense from last year’s team that went 7-5 overall, 4-3 in the Big East and made it to the school’s first bowl game in 27 seasons. Rutgers fell to Arizona State 45-40 in the Insight Bowl.
The Middies returned seven starters on offense and nine on defense from a team that went 8-4 last season and beat Colorado State 51-30 in the Poinsettia Bowl.
The Sagarin Predictor ratings at USAToday.com rank the Scarlet Knights 47th at 73.8, Navy 27th at 79.9.
The O/U is a collective 3-6 in Rutgers and Navy games this season.
Navy opened up as 1 ½-point favorites for Saturday’s game, with a total of 46. But the Middies have been bet up to as much as three at some
sportsbooks
around the Interweb.
The Ultimatecapper Pick: We like Rutgers here! | 
