Michigan State football: 3 fearless predictions at Rutgers in Week 7

Michigan State football will be in Piscataway this weekend to face off against Rutgers. Will the Spartans end their losing streak?

A three-game losing streak could come to an end on Saturday as Michigan State football travels to Piscataway to take on Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are sitting at 4-2 so far this season while the Spartans are just 2-3.

A bye week may just reinvigorate this team and get it on the right track for a bowl push. It’s not going to be an easy task against the much-improved Scarlet Knights, though.

Here are three of my boldest predictions ahead of Saturday’s game.

1. Nathan Carter will reel off a K9-esque long TD run

Remember the last time Michigan State went to Piscataway with a talented running back leading the offense? That’s right, Kenneth Walker III reeled off 233 yards and a 94-yard touchdown on 29 carries. That 94-yard scamper is still something I think about at least three times a week. The good ol’ days.

Well, Nathan Carter is going to give us some slight flashbacks to K9, ripping off a 70-yard touchdown run, his longest of the season, to put the Spartans on the board in the first half. Maybe this is how the offense will get going. It’ll definitely take some pressure off Katin Houser in his first start.

2. Maliq Carr will post a new career-high

The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for Maliq Carr and Michigan State. The star tight end went down with an injury in the Iowa game and he would have likely been doubtful last week if the Spartans played. Luckily they didn’t and he had some time to rest up without missing any games.

And what we saw from Carr at the start of the Iowa game was promising. He had a career-high six catches to go along with 43 yards. That gave him a combined 11 receptions for 96 yards in essentially five quarters of action between Iowa and Maryland. I expect that success and growth to continue against Rutgers on Saturday afternoon.

Carr is going to have new career highs in receptions and yards, catching seven passes for 90 yards and a touchdown. A big day for the talented tight end to help break in a brand-new starting quarterback.

3. Michigan State pulls off the “upset”

It almost pains my soul to say that Michigan State football is an underdog against Rutgers. No, that’s not a typo, Michigan State is a 5.5-point underdog against the Scarlet Knights ahead of Saturday’s game in Piscataway. Wild.

But I don’t think the Spartans will play like the underdog. I think they’ll actually be ready.

Michigan State has had two weeks to prepare for this game and it has looked like a much better team in the past six quarters in the second half against Maryland and against Iowa. The Spartans could very well be 4-2 right now or even 5-1, but they haven’t seemed to figure things out for an entire four-quarter game post-Mel Tucker. I think they finally figure out for the better part of 60 minutes on Saturday.

The Spartans will go into Piscataway and pick up a 28-24 win over the Scarlet Knights.