Despite a 41-38 loss to Louisville to end the regular season, Rutgers will still be going bowling for the third straight season. In, possibly, Ray Rice’s final game donning the scarlet, the Knights will travel to Toronto to battle  Ball State on January 5th.

In the defeat to the Cardinals, RU played as it has all season. They jumped out early on and played very well before falling apart in the end. This has been the Rutgers’ season in a nutshell. Rice finished the game with 120 yards on the ground and reached the end zone three times. Kenny Britt and Tiquan Underwood became the first receiving duo in Big East history to each reach 1000 yards receiving in a season. Britt also broke Tres Moses school-record for receiving yards in a season.

Another loss for Rutgers, but again some promising performances. Who knows what next season will hold. This year should end with a decisive bowl victory over a lesser team, but who knows with this year.

It certainly wasn’t pretty… not by a long stretch. Rutgers, though, picked up perhaps its most important win of the season on Saturday when it topped Pittsburgh 20-16 on Senior Day. With 21 seniors saying good bye to the fans at RU, the Knights struggled in a penalty and turnover-happy game. The win, though, ensures that Rutgers will be playing in the postseason for the third straight season, with many saying that the PapaJohns.com bowl is the likliest of places.

Rutgers managed just 219 total yards of offense and Mike Teel and Jabu Lovelace combined for just 5-of-19 passing for 108 yards and two interceptions and two fumbles. It was ugly, real ugly…But a win is a win and Rutgers was able to escape with that.

This is a game that we should win. There have been a few this season, though, that we were supposed to win and didn’t. With that being said, I say we come out of this weekend victorious. Ray Rice, who sits at 1500 yards rushing on the season, should be able to get his yards against Pittsburgh. Jabu Lovelace will likely also get his yards. Hopefully, after throwing the ball just a handful of times, the receivers will actually get their hands on the ball. I would also like to see Mason Robinson get used in the offense a bit more because man, is be explosive. He just adds a whole new dimension to the game. I think Rutgers comes out strong and wins by 17 points. I will go with 34-17. Let’s go RU

Although a 41-6 victory over Army is nothing to be too impressed about, alot of good things happened on Friday night for the Knights. Ray Rice, who we all know is a top running back, continued to show the nation just how talented he is. The junior heisman trophy candidate set a Rutgers single-game record for rushing yards as he finished with 243 yards on 34 carries. It is the 22nd time that Rice has passed the century mark in rushing for a game. He truly is a special running back.

 Jeremy Ito, who has been asked rather unfairly to handle all the kicking duties this year, set a new Big East record for points by a kicker with 374 career points. Ito finished the Army game with11 points (two field goals and five extra points).

Jabu Lovelace, who filled in rather nicely for Mike Teel, rushed for two touchdowns and finished with 88 yards rushing.

Mason Robinson may have been the most impressive player on the field. The quick youngster rushed 14 times for 82 yards and showed some great moves when he was given the chance.

This was not a great win, but numerous players (some old, some new) showed us alot of promise for the future. Rutgers is also bowl eligible for the third straight sesason with this victory.

Well, this certainly has not gone according to plan thus far this season. Not ranked, numerous bad losses and no chance at a Big East title or a BCS bowl game. Seems like a bit of a step in the wrong direction. However, we must remember that this was a squad that had never gone to a bowl game prior to three years ago and to go to three in a row really is a great accomplishment. The fans, me included, must remember that this team has been on television for 33 straight weeks. I remember just five years ago having to listen to the game on the radio because no one wanted to watch hapless rutgers lose by 50 points. Also, with a win against Army, we will become bowl-eligible and that is another opportunity for others to see the school and the program. No, this is not how we wanted it to be. But, we are still respectable and are still moving in the right direction as a program. Go RU, Beat ARMY

Ok, I will admit that I did not watch the Rutgers-UConn. game so I am writing this solely on what others have said and the recaps and box score that I have seen. So we rack up over 500 yards of offense and lose. I just really dont understand this. Yes, we turned the ball over once but still. Well, wait…we did give them two points on a safety and let up a kickoff return for a touchdown and settle for four field goals and Ito missed one and committed nine turnovers.

Ok, so now I see what happened…Rutgers just isnt that good. All season, the team and the coaches have made poor decisions and it has cost them. To lose to UConn is just unexceptable. If we want to be a powerhouse football program, a loss to this type of team just can not happen. This is really all I have to say about this… I’m done, and a respectable season is done for Rutgers.

Last year when Rutgers and UConn. met, RU was the squad that had surprised the nation and the Huskies were the team that was trying to ruin their party. This year it is Connecticut who is 7-1 and ranked No. 16, while RU is struggling at 5-3 and looking for the upset.

I have to say, though, this really wouldn’t be much of an upset in my mind. UConn had an extremely easy schedule and should have lost to Temple, if it wasn’t for one of the worst calls I have ever seen in college football.

Since it appears that all RU is going to do this year is hand the ball off to Ray Rice, he should be able to have his way with the UConn defense. The status of Mike Teel is still unclear and god for bid Jabu Lovelace throw the ball…so this will likely be another game where it is run after run.

With all that being said, i still believe RU will win this game and become bowl eligible for the third straight season.

Well, after another loss it is time to look at the big picture. This was bar far the worst loss in the past two years, a humiliating 31-3 defeat to West Virginia but the problem in this one was the same as it always is. An article in The Home News Tribune titled “Rice Can’t Carry Scarlet Knights Alone” is point on with the issues. Rutgers, with all its weapons on offense has become so predictable its sad.

Ray Rice, who is by far one of my favorite players, is given the ball 30 times a game and he runs straight up the middle. Very rarely does he get pitched the ball and can he run to the outside. Or get a screen out in the flat. How many times has anyone else run the ball for the Knights? Why does Kenny Britt not even get looked at during the game until the final minutes? Why is the tight end virtually non-existant? There are things I just don’t understand with this Rutgers team. I am not a coach or a player, so maybe I am just being a naive fan (which is likely) but why can’t we mix up the offense? This has been anything but a good season for RU, but there still is time left to make it respectable. As a program, RU can not afford to take a step back. If they win out, which is possible, they can still go to a good bowl and be positive about the future. I say, open it up a bit. Get different people involved and see how it goes. What if Rice leaves after this season? Can you imagine the offense next year? I don’t want to.

All that we have heard thus far this season is how this Rutgers team is different from last year’s team. If this isn’t the most idiotic statement, than I dont know what is. Obviously this is a different team. Players come graduated and new players have stepped up. Never is a team the same one year to the next.

This team has gone through some struggles this season, but came up with a huge win last week and look to be finally making their own identity. A win this week would be monumental and would show the nation that this is a quality squad. WVU has owned Rutgers and has put together some terrible beatings of the Knights (80-7 comes to mind). Nothing would be better than for RU to send them back to Mountain country with their tales between their legs. The weather looks like it is going to be ugly. That may help or hurt RU. Who knows because both teams will have to play in it. Mike Teel looks like he is going to be able to go and that should be a morale booster for this squad. I predict that Rutgers pulls this off due to another big game by Ray Rice and some key plays by Jabu Lovelace. Yes, that is correct. I am predicting that Lovelace comes up with a couple big plays in this game. Go RU

This is the way we envisioned this Rutgers team playing prior to the start of the season. Ray Rice virtually unstoppable (rushing for over 180 yards), Tiquan Underwood pulling in big time catches and the defense coming up LARGE. All of that and more happened in RU’s 30-27 win over South Florida on Thursday. Could you imagine if RU didn’t lose against Maryland and Cincinnati? What if they were able to score on the final drive and win both of those games? We would be numero uno in the country. Well, you cant do the what-if game. Thursday was an unbelievable win and now we have to prepare for West Virginia, which will be just as tough as a game, if not tougher. Let’s Go RU!