Sunday, November 18, 2007

RU slips past Pittsburgh 20-16
plus a look at the BIG EAST bowl chances

Rutgers R.small
Rutgers eked out a victory over Pittsburgh 20-16 in their final home game of the season yesterday. Mike Teel threw for a 56-yard touchdown to Kenny Britt before his troublesome sore thumb limited his playing time and Ray Rice ran for 112 yards and one TD while Jeremy Ito nailed two field goals for the other RU points. It was a near thing as the Panthers had the ball in the closing moments only to be called for offensive pass interference in the end zone on what could have been the winning score and they then were intercepted with mere seconds to go.

The Scarlet Knights improved to 7-4 overall and 3-3 in the BIG EAST while Pitt fell to 4-6 and 2-3 in conference play.

The full story and stats can be found here.

In other BIG EAST play West Virginia downed Cincinnati 28-23 and Connecticut defeated Syracuse 30-7 setting up a virtual title game this weekend. South Florida rolled over Louisville 55-17 in the other BIG EAST matchup of the week.
The remaining BIG EAST schedule:
UConn at West Virginia on Nov. 24
Cincinnati at Syracuse on Nov. 24
South Florida at Pittsburg on Nov. 24
Rutgers at Louisville on Nov. 29
Pittsburgh at West Virginia on Dec. 1

The Bowl picture:
Five BIG EAST teams are currently bowl eligible.
UConn 9-2 overall 5-1 in the BIG EAST
West Virginia 9-1, 4-1
Cincinnati 8-3, 3-3
South Florida 8-3, 3-3
Rutgers 7-4, 3-3

The winner of the UConn/West Virginia game will more than likely be the league champion and move on to a BCS bowl. (There is a tiny chance of that not happening, but it’s very, very unlikely.) Last year the BIG EAST was 5-0 in bowl games. It would be nice to see them do it again.

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