West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights Week 9 Odds and Stats

The West Virginia Mountaineers and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights will fight on Saturday at Rutgers Stadium in a betting game televised on ABC.

If you tuned in to last Friday night’s 49-23 annihilation of West Virginia by Syracuse, you’ll probably need to be convinced that the Mountaineers are worth a look here.

After all, the WVU defense made Orange QB Ryan Nassib look like Joe-Freakin’ Montana, getting sliced and diced for 229 yards, four TD’s and a 75% pass completion rate.

And the stump-jumpers’ inability to stop the aerial game opened up numerous running lanes for the Syracuse backs, who combined for 194 yards (4.7 YPC) ground yards.

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However, we need look no further than our trusty database to make a solid case for the visitors: road favorites off a SU road favorite loss laying 13 or more points are a surprising 18-1 SU and 12-7 ATS in their next outing.

Park that one right next to the hosts’ awful 0-6 ATS mark as home dogs versus a conference foe off a SU and ATS loss of 16 or more points and you’ll see why the Mounties have got our attention.

Rutgers has surpassed all expectations for 2011 after winning just four games last year, stringing together a 5-2 SU start with its only two losses each coming by a mere two points.

But West Virginny has escaped with cash in hand in four of its last visits to the Garden State – and with the Knights still seeing Scarlet after Friday night’s agonizing setback at Louisville, we don’t expect them to improve on an anemic 1-5 ATS mark off weekday games.

We respect the near-miraculous rebuilding job head coach Greg Schiano has done this year but his troops host the wrong team this week.

If you’re still giving consideration to a play on the Jersey Boys, we suggest you ‘fuggedaboutit.”

West Virginia is listed as 5½-point favorites against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and the game's total is sitting at 52.

West Virginia most recently:
When playing in October are 6-4
When playing on turf are 7-3
After being outgained are 8-2
When playing within the conference are 7-3

Rutgers most recently:
When playing in October are 7-3
When playing on turf are 5-5
After being outgained are 2-8
When playing within the conference are 3-7