Penn State @ Rutgers preview

Last Meeting ( Nov 11, 2017 ) Rutgers 6, Penn State 35

Penn State's season took a turn for the worse when it was unable to get past the top teams in the Big Ten East division. The 15th-ranked Nittany Lions righted the ship a bit last week and will take aim at the division's doormat when they visit Rutgers on Saturday.

Behind 159 yards and a touchdown from junior running back Miles Sanders, Penn State picked up a 22-10 win over Wisconsin last Saturday, bouncing back from a 2-3 stretch that included blown fourth-quarter leads against Ohio State and Michigan State and a blowout loss at Michigan. "I think obviously we were doing a pretty good job at [improving] early in the season and then we hit some adversity like a lot of programs do all over the country," Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said at his weekly teleconference. "I think we're headed back in that direction again, so I'm pleased with that." The Scarlet Knights are one defeat away from their second 10-loss season in three years under head coach Chris Ash. They've lost nine in a row since opening the year with a victory over Texas State, falling 42-7 against Michigan last weekend.

TV: Noon ET, Big Ten Network. LINE: Penn State -28

ABOUT PENN STATE (7-3, 4-3 Big Ten): Senior quarterback Trace McSorley rebounded from a dismal game against the Wolverines to complete 19-of-25 passes for 160 yards and a TD against Wisconsin while tying the school record with his 29th victory as a starter under center. Sanders had an average of 70.6 yards during the team's 2-3 swoon but used his elusiveness to average 6.9 yards per carry in the win, recording the 26th 1,000-yard season in school history. "People may say that at times (Sanders) had been frustrated, but you never saw that," Franklin said Saturday in regards to the running back's decline in carries and yards. "Would we love to rush for more yards week in and week out? No doubt about it."

ABOUT RUTGERS (1-9, 0-7): The Scarlet Knights have been held to 17 points or fewer throughout the nine-game slide and they rank last among FBS teams in scoring average (14.5). Quarterback Artur Sitkowski completed only eight passes for 40 yards against Michigan while fellow freshman Isaih Pacheco shined with a personal-best 142 rushing yards and the team's only score - an 80-yard run that forged a 7-7 tie late in the first quarter. "Every chance I get, I try to take advantage," Pacheco told reporters. "We don't have anything to lose. We've just got to keep fighting, keep going, and we're going to get somewhere."

EXTRA POINTS

1. McSorley threw for two TDs and ran for another in a 35-6 win over Rutgers last season, Penn State's 11th straight victory in the series.

2. Nittany Lions DE Yetur Gross-Matos has six of his eight sacks over the last four games.

3. Scarlet Knights RB Raheem Blackshear has 21 carries and 13 catches over the last two games, producing 257 total yards and a TD in that span.

PREDICTION: Penn State 42, Rutgers 13