Rutgers Football: 2018 season game-by-game predictions

PISCATAWAY, NJ - SEPTEMBER 30: Head coach Chris Ash of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights stands on the sidelines during a game against the Ohio State Buckeyes on September 30, 2017 at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. Ohio State won 56-0. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

If there is a single Big Ten game that looks on paper to be a surefire win, it is the matchup with Illinois. There is only one team rated below Rutgers in the conference preseason power rankings and Lovie Smith‘s Fighting Illini are that team.

These two teams met last season and it was the first of three in-conference wins for the Scarlet Knights in a 35-24 victory. Even that score seems high for two very unproductive teams, but 35 points was the second-highest point total Rutgers accumulated in a win last year.

Similarly to the 2016 Scarlet Knights, Illinois didn’t win any of its conference games a season ago and only emerged victorious twice. In 2017, the Illini defense allowed nearly 200 yards a game through the air and even more yardage on the ground. This year, the same result is imminent.

In its third straight home game, Rutgers won’t have too many bumps in the road to capture a victory against a reeling Illinois squad.

At the halfway mark of the season, Rutgers can use a game like this to continue building its rhythm and establishing a foothold of on offense just before it enters a harrowing gauntlet of games against the big guns of the conference.

Final: Illinois 14, Rutgers 27 (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten)

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