The over/under being set at 6.5 should be a wake up call to this board, which seems to wildly overrate this team. Remember, RU lost four consecutive games to end the regular season including being shut out at Iowa and blown out at home by Maryland. The bowl win was nice but also basically an outdoor late December home game against a severely depleted warm weather opponent. In the grand scheme of things, it didn't mean much.
The Rutgers defense played very well most of last year but did have some setbacks including the 42 points Maryland put up against us in the final regular season game. Having said that, it should be the team's biggest strength other than the running game.
Beyond Monangai, Rutgers doesn't really have any proven weapons on offense. That's why we won't be favored to beat half the teams on our schedule. While I still think 7 regular season wins is the likely outcome, I see Virginia Tech as a likely loss on the road and also Washington, the national runner-up, as a guaranteed defeat. The consensus around here seems to be that both those games are likely wins which strikes me as ridiculous and it looks like the betting public feels the same way.
Think of it this way: unless RU pulls off an upset, the team will be 2-2 heading into a road game at Nebraska, where Rutgers has never won. In fact, we've never beaten Nebraska, period. I'm thinking much more about that scenario more than the sunshine and rainbows that largely fill this board.
