Michigan Football: Roundtable predictions for Wolverines at Rutgers

Some members of the GBMWolverine.com staff voice their opinions on how things may end up playing out between Michigan Football and Rutgers.

For the third time this season, Michigan football will play under the lights as the Wolverines will travel to Piscataway, New Jersey to take on Rutgers Saturday night.

Both teams are 1-3 and following wins in the first week of Big Ten play, each program has lost three straight. U-M comes in as a double-digit favorite and with that in mind, here are our predictions:

Adam Childs: Michigan 38, Rutgers 28

I’m going to get straight and to the point on this one. Michigan football has not been good at all, but Rutgers is still worse than that. Michigan wins it.

Jared Dettmer: Michigan 41, Rutgers 17

In Year 6 of Jim Harbaugh, we should be closer to predicting this game as 78-0 like the 2016 contest than the 2014 iteration where the Wolverines fell to the Scarlet Knights — we are not.

I do believe Michigan football will win this game but I think it will be a close game after the first quarter and into the second as well. Maybe Michigan gets a late first half touchdown and scores on their first drive of the second half and coasts to a three touchdown victory. It isn’t pretty but it’s a win. Fans shouldn’t take that for granted this season.

Nick Popio: Michigan 33, Rutgers 26

On paper this game feels like a toss up. In reality Rutgers beat Michigan State, albeit with 7 turnovers, while Michigan fell short at home to the Spartans. Maybe this is where the maize and blue turn the corner a bit and put together a mini winning streak with some winnable games over the next three weeks.

The Scarlet Knights are coming off a head scratching loss to Illinois after it seemed as though they would be a little better than everyone had expected before the season kicked off. That gives the Wolverines some hope that they can go into Piscataway and come out victorious. I’m hesitant to pick Michigan, but I feel as though that they are due for a better outcome then the previous three weeks. Jim Harbaugh gets a win to cool things down for a week or so.

Chris Peterson: Michigan 34, Rutgers 17

To me this game is all about the trenches. Michigan should have Jalen Mayfield and Ryan Hayes back and that will make a huge difference in this one. Jim Harbaugh talked about getting back to basics and hopefully, the game plan isn’t too crazy. This is about blocking, tackling and play good, hard-nosed football. If the Wolverines can get back to that, they win — otherwise, who knows?