Maryland Offensive Player to Watch: Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa
Tagovailoa has looked both outstanding and overwhelmed at different points during the 2021 season
The Buckeyes are back home this week and facing a very different opponent than the Rutgers team that they took down 52-13 last Saturday in New Jersey. The Maryland Terrapins are coming to Columbus likely lacking in confidence, but with a team that is well-positioned to finish the regular season with a winning record for the first time since 2014 — and potentially earn their first bowl victory since 2010. They were boat-raced by a top-five team in Iowa, but got out of the gates quickly by starting 4-0. How they respond against the Buckeyes will speak volumes about the outlook for the rest of their season.
Prior to the Iowa game, Maryland was averaging 37.2 points per game and only giving up 14.2. The Hawkeyes proceeded to torch the Terrapins, so now the question becomes, was September all smoke and mirrors for Mike Locksley’s bunch — or is this team the real deal, looking to bounce back from a terrible game? I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle…
We’ll get to the defense later in the week, but I am less inclined to believe in their season-long success. Yes, they finished the first month of the season as a top-10 scoring defense, but they were outside the top-40 in total yards and benefitted from opponents coughing up two turnovers per game. Maryland’s September schedule consisted of West Virginia, Howard, Illinois, and Kent State — none of which posed a great threat on offense.
West Virginia is averaging 21 points per game against FBS opponents, Howard is an FCS team, and Illinois and Kent State both finished September outside the top-100 in points scored per game. The Terps’ defense certainly did not look impenetrable against Iowa, so I anticipate the Buckeyes being able to move the ball on Saturday.
Maryland’s offense is what
should keep them in a lot of games this year. I say “should” because the Iowa game may have broken their quarterback and erased all of the confidence that he and the team had built up during the first month of the season. It was ugly. But I think Iowa is going to make plenty of teams look ugly this year. The Hawkeyes have one of the best defenses in the country, so I don’t want to be a prisoner of the moment when evaluating Maryland.
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