| Last week made it extremely clear that if Maryland can't pass, the Maryland offense does not work. The wet, and extremely windy, conditions that blanketed Big Ten territory last week, made throwing the ball in several locations, including College Park, absolutely impossible. Tagovailoa was limited to just 77 passing yards, same as Graham Mertz. But Wisconsin ran for 6.0 ypc, with a pair of 110+ yard backs, while the Terps ran for just 2.7, with the threat of the deep ball gone. After struggling through a close rain win over Northwestern earlier in the year, the wind conditions this week did not seem to hinder the Penn State passing game. Sean Clifford and Drew Allar combined to go 24-35 for 304 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Assuming the weather is going to be better, and it can't be worse, expect to see a lot more of the downfield passing attack that Maryland relies on. The Nittany Lions may be suspetible to it. Their overall numbers look pretty good, because against the two best passing attacks they played, at least in terms of yardage, Purdue and Ohio State, Penn State allowed a combined 662 yards, on 56-92 passing (61%), without picking off a pass. Penn State shouldn't have to pass as much as Maryland does, but their freshman running back duo has had an up and down season. There were solid, but unspectacular last week at Indiana, but this is a Maryland run defense which is REALLY struggling right now. As I already said, even knowing Wisconsin had to run the ball last week, they did absolutely nothing. This a week after Evan Hull of Northwestern ran for 119 yards on 6.0 ypc himself. In a league filled with unrequited rivalries, this is one that often gets slept on. This series stopped when Penn State joined the Big Ten, but from 1960-1993, they played 31 out of 34 years. And Penn State went 29-1-1, with the one loss coming in 1961. They didn't play again until Maryland joined the Big Ten, and when Maryland won that first matchup in 2014, it was BIG for Terp fans. I know Penn State doesn't reciprocate the hate, but Maryland typically comes into this one with a little more fire. Granted, even with that, Penn State had a 3 year run from 2017-19 where they outscored Maryland 163-6, so, it doesn't mean everything. |
