The Rutgers Scarlet Knights earned a big win against the red-hot Minnesota Golden Gophers last weekend, 26-19, with their star running back Kyle Monangai out with an injury. Rutgers has put themselves on the map now, needing to win just one of their last three games to become bowl eligible. This weekend’s game against the Maryland Terrapins may be the most winnable of the three games. Maryland has lost four of its last five games, including a 39-18 loss to the Oregon Ducks last weekend. Junior quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. completed 50% of his passes and threw for 1 touchdown in the losing effort. Edwards has had to take on the role of sub-center for a program after Taulia Tagovailoa set school records. It felt like Edwards’ success has flown under the radar in the Big Ten. He currently ranks 3rd in the conference in passing yards with 2,520 yards. He will face Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, who is having his best game of the season against his former team. Kaliakmanis threw for 3 touchdowns in the win and 240 total yards. It’s still questionable whether Kaliakmanis will have Monangai behind him this weekend, but since Monangai was a game-time scratch last week, he could potentially be ready to play against Maryland.

Rutgers hasn’t done it far from home this season, and I think that pushes this spread more heavily in Maryland’s favor. Rutgers has a 1-2 record when playing away from its home stadium. The good news for Rutgers is that Maryland has struggled while playing Big Ten opponents. The Terrapins are 1-5 against conference foes and have had some poor performances at home. The biggest game on my mind is their 37-10 loss to Northwestern on their home court a month ago. One of these two bad streaks will break this weekend. I’m leaning more toward the Scarlet Knights because of their quarterback’s play over the last three weeks. After a string of poor performances, Kaliakmanis has thrown for a total of 840 yards in his last three games and has seemed more comfortable running the offense. This line could move more if Monangai is announced to be healthy, but this could be a good time to take this line if it has a few extra points.

Rutgers vs. Maryland prediction: Rutgers +6 (-110) available at time of publication. Playable on that song.

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