Maryland getting a beat up Purdue team, on the heels of their get right game against Rutgers, and then rolling into an Indiana game at home, looked primed to put themselves in great position to get back to their first bowl game in three years. Instead, what happened in West Lafayette has to put major concerns out there for Maryland's defense going forward. Jack Plummer, who was ok against Minnesota, but had a sub 10 QBR against TCU and Penn State, threw for over 400 yards on over 10 ypa on over 80% completions, with 3 touchdowns, and no picks against a Terp defense that now ranks last in Big Ten games in both completion percentage allowed and passing ypg allowed, #13 in passing ypa allowed, and #12 in defensive pass efficiency. And just to remind you 1/3 of Maryland's Big Ten games to date have been against Rutgers. You ignore the statistical glitch that is the Rutgers passing game? Dead last across the board in completion percentage (76.5%), passing ypg (420.5), passing ypa (10.4) and pass efficiency (273.6). Now he has to face Michael Penix Jr. who is playing as well as any quarterback in the conference right now. In two games since returning from injury, he has completed over 70% of his passes, for 284 ypa, with 6 touchdowns and just 1 pick. But why am I still slightly hesitant? Those two games were against Rutgers and a Michigan State defense that gave up everything short to take away the deep ball. That why Penix only had 8.6 ypc in that game, but he showed good touch on the deep ball, nearly hitting a pair of them into double coverage. So while Penix hasn't necessarily showed the full arsenal against a non-Rutgers opponent, right now I'm not convinced Maryland's defense is much better, if better at all, than Rutgers. But Maryland at least SHOULD have is an offense. The problem is Josh Jackson was ineffective against Penn State, and got injured against Rutgers, forcing him to miss the Purdue game. But as far as experienced backups go, aside from Indiana with Peyton Ramsey, you could argue that perhaps no Big Ten team was better equipped to suffer injury at the position than Maryland. Tyrrell Pigrome had seen action in 23 games across his first three seasons in College Park, starting 4. Instead he completed just 53% of his passes, on 5.6 ypa, with a pair of interceptions, for his lowest QBR in a game where he attempted more than 5 passes since a 62-3 loss to Ohio State in November of 2016 as a freshman. He did add 107 rushing yards, but 61 of them came on one touchdown run. He actually seemed to get less comfortable as the game progressed. After that touchdown run to make it 20-14 with 9 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, the Terps only had one drive the rest of the game longer than 5 plays. We've seen enough if Piggy across 4 years to know he's better than what we saw Saturday, and he also was unable to get any balance from the run game. Anthony McFarland Jr. continues to be slowed by an ankle injury, and only got 4 carries for 4 yards against Purdue. Returning home, if McFarland plays, and is effective, I think we'll see a much better Terp offense. But I don't know how they hold Penix to under 350(?) yards. Hoosiers get their first non-Rutgers conference road win since 2015. |