How and what to watch for Rutgers vs. Maryland

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Maryland Terrapins will try to end their regular seasons with a win when they play Saturday at 12:00 p.m. ET in College Park, MD.

The Scarlet Knights (2-5) enter the regular season finale off a 23-7 home loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions. Rutgers’ offense struggled to put up points, while their defense could not stop Penn State’s running game. The Nittany Lions gashed the Scarlet Knights for 248 rushing yards, led by running back Keyvone Lee, who had a game-high 95 yards on 17 carries.

This season, Rutgers’ defense is allowing 131.8 rushing yards per game and 4.3 yards per carry. As for the Terrapins (2-2), they were scheduled to play Michigan last week but their game was canceled due to COVID-19.

The last time we saw them on the field, Maryland lost 27-11 to the Indiana Hoosiers on Nov. 28. The Terps struggled on both sides of the ball as quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa threw a touchdown, but also three interceptions. Tagovailoa will look to play mistake free football against a Rutgers’ defense that is averaging 1.9 takeaways per game this season.

Defensively, Maryland allowed the Hoosiers to run all over them to the tune of 234 yards and three touchdowns. Indiana running back Tim Baldwin Jr. led both teams with 106 yards on 16 carries, while Stevie Scott III had all three scores and 80 rushing yards.

Game Time/TV Channel/Streaming

You can watch Rutgers vs. Maryland on Saturday, December 12th at 12:00 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network, or you can stream it via the Fox Sports Go app with a cable or streaming service login that gets the network.

Point Spread, Totals, Odds, Trends*

Point spread: Rutgers vs. Maryland (-7)
Point Total: O/U 58
Money line: Rutgers (+190) vs. Maryland (-240)

* Not available to be bet at DraftKings in New Jersey because of state regulations.

• This season, the Scarlet Knights have not been a great ML pick as they have a record of 1-5 straight up in their last six games.
• However, over the same period, the point total went over in five of Rutgers’ last seven games.
• Dating back to last season, the Terrapins have a record of 3-6 against the spread in their last nine games.
• Unlike Rutgers, the point total went under in five of Maryland’s last six games.

Betting splits

Rutgers: (57% of handle, 34% percent of bets)
Maryland: (43% of handle, 66% percent of bets)

The Best Bet

If things broke differently for Rutgers this season, they could’ve been 4-3 instead of 2-5 currently. In their last two losses, the Scarlet Knights have been outscored by 22 points, which isn’t bad. One of those came against Michigan in a six-point overtime loss.

This week they are facing a Maryland team that hasn’t played a lot of football in the last five weeks. In their only home game this season, the Terps came back and defeated Minnesota 45-44. That being said, if Rutgers can take care of the football, then they should have a shot of keeping this game close.

Pick: Rutgers (+7)

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