Maryland is a sneaky 6-2.They sure are and when you consider that the losses are by two to a pretty good Purdue team and by a TD at #4 it is not surprising that the Terps are third among the "others receiving votes".
Maryland is the kind of team, it seems to me, that can have a nice run and then lose one inexplicably, like South Carolina to Mizzou.they are exactly that kind of team lol
| Maryland Terrapins (3-2, 6-2) at Wisconsin Badgers (2-3, 4-4) |
| NOON - Madison, WI - BTN |
| This has the makings of a sneaky good game. I'm not fully sure what to make of either of these teams, and I'm not sure they know themselves. Maryland is 6-2, and probably deserves to be ranked. They likely will be with a win here. But what's their best win? SMU at home? This kicks off a three week stretch of @Wisconsin, @Penn State, Ohio State. I think any Maryland fan would sign off for just winning one of those (although they'd privately ask for a guarantee that its Penn State). But if they can take this one, with Rutgers in the finale, they would get their first 8 win regular season since 2010, and only their second in the past 20 years (the other being 2006). For Wisconsin, are they back on the rails under Jim Leonhard? Were they ever even off the rails? They are 2-1 under Leonhard, but everyone pounds Northwestern. So what's real, a loss to a bad Michigan State team, or a home win over Purdue, that was not nearly as bad as the final score? And did they actually flip anything? Losing by 31 to Ohio State and 24 to Illinois actually kind of seems par for the course now, the better we know how good the Illini actually are. So is this all about a 3 point loss to Washington State? Both teams are coming in off a bye week, and both teams badly needed it. Wisconsin appears to have gotten substantially healthier, and Maryland appears to be getting Taulia Tagovailoa out. He got knocked out early in the 4th quarter against Indiana, with the Terps down 27-24. The headline was backup quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. leading the comeback, and while he did quarterback them to back to back touchdown drives, he went 0-3 passing, with Maryland picking up all 123 yards on said drives through 11 runs. They then ran the ball 50 times in squeaking out a win against Northwestern last week. They won't be able to get away with that this week. Unlike the uncertainty above, with Casey Thompson, a actually do think whether or not Taulia plays will determine who wins the game. And it seems like he's going to play. |
| MARYLAND 28, WISCONSIN 26 |
From 247:I am really interested to see if he gets to hold onto that job.
Since Leonhard has handed the keys to the car to Engram offensively, the Badgers are averaging 35 points on 218 yards passing per game.
I think the home team will win. I'm going to say 31-13 or so.18 points seems like a lot. Vegas has Wisconsin favored by 5. Wisconsin is 2-1 in their last 3 games after getting beat down by Illinois, but one of those wins was vs the worst team in the conference in Northwestern and the loss was pretty bad loss vs a really bad Sparty team. The win at home vs Purdue was a nice win though. Not sure what to think of Wisconsin yet.
The UMD schedule to date doesn't show anything remarkably proficient, two competitive losses and a slew of wins inside one score also. When I see this, I think the ball bounced their way a couple of times and they could as easily be 4-4.yeah, and Wisconsin is 4-4, lost at home to a 9th place in the PAC12 WazzuSt team, lost on the road to a pretty dreadful Sparty squad, and got royally beat down by Ohio State and....Illinois? Oh, and Graham Mertz is still their QB, so....I think it'll be a close game and in a battle of the QB's, give me Tua JR every day and twice on Saturday over Graham freaking Mertz.
Northwestern gained 215 yards on the ground, on the road, against Maryland.transitive property in football doesn't mean much. Tua JR wasn't playing that game, the back up was. Maybe that game goes differently if Tua JR is in there controlling it and putting up more points. Tua JR reportedly healthy and will be starting in this one. He's a damn good QB.
yeah, and Wisconsin is 4-4, lost at home to a 9th place in the PAC12 WazzuSt team, lost on the road to a pretty dreadful Sparty squad, and got royally beat down by Ohio State and....Illinois? Oh, and Graham Mertz is still their QB, so....I think it'll be a close game and in a battle of the QB's, give me Tua JR every day and twice on Saturday over Graham freaking Mertz.Completely different team now. Bad seeds are no longer with the team, and the coaching has been shaken up.
Either team could be 6-2, or 4-4, pretty easily. It's a home game for Wisky. They may be improving some.yep. we'll find out in just a couple more days if Maryland is for real or if Wisconsin has really turned it around.
what will we have learned if the Badgers win by 2 points on a last second FG?I would conclude they are on a par with the Terps. If Maryland wins a close one, the same, but the Terps would get ranked at 7-2 somewhere.
what will we have learned if the Badgers win by 2 points on a last second FG?Not much
The UMD schedule to date doesn't show anything remarkably proficient, two competitive losses and a slew of wins inside one score also. When I see this, I think the ball bounced their way a couple of times and they could as easily be 4-4.I agree but it also works both ways because, as you noted, their losses were close too. Take two plays away from them and they could be 4-4, give two plays to them and they could be 8-0
At the start of the season I would have easily picked the Badgers. This year, it might be a game. I'm still going go home field advantage FTW.Hopefully it's still a game when the Wisconsin students show up.