Following a tight -and tough – loss on Saturday to No. 1 Ohio State, the eyeball test says that Rutgers football should be able to compete in their remaining three games and potentially grab another win or perhaps two. And ESPN would agree with that assessment.
With the loss on Saturday, Rutgers is now 6-3 (3-3 Big Ten).
The analytic measurement ESPN FPI is projecting for the first time this season that Rutgers will win their season finale against Maryland. In their update following this weekend’s games, ESPN has Rutgers at 51.2 percent to beat Maryland in their regular-season finale.
Rutgers remained at No. 44 in the national FPI rankings despite the loss, an indicator of the quality of their opponent this weekend as well as their overall strong performance in defeat. Maryland, however, was handled by Penn State and they tumbled eight spots to No. 40 in the ESPN FPI rankings.
Maryland had the biggest drop of any team in the top 50 of the FPI rankings.
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As for Rutgers, their next two games…well…the ESPN FPI projections are not as kind. All three of their remaining games are in the Big Ten:
- Rutgers at Iowa on Nov. 11 (Rutgers is at 38 percent to win the game)
- Rutgers at No. 11 Penn State on Nov. 18 (Rutgers is at 6.3 percent to win the game)
The projected win/loss total for Rutgers is 7.0-5.0, which would represent their best season since they joined the Big Ten in 2014.