Maryland (6-3 SU, 4-5 ATS, 3-3 B10) travels to Happy Valley to take on No. 14 Penn State (7-2 SU, 4-4-1 ATS, 4-2 B10) on Saturday at 3:30pmET from Beaver Stadium.
The Terps are coming off a 23-10 loss at Wisconsin as a 4.5-point dog on Saturday. The Nittany Lions crushed Indiana 45-14 last week as a 14-point road favorite.
Last season, PSU crushed Maryland 31-14 on the road from College Park.
Maryland was coming off a bye and was hoping to get a boost from quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa (knee), who had missed the Northwestern game (31-24 win) before the bye. But Tagovailoa struggled in the elements in Madison and completed just 10 of 23 passes for 77 yards with one TD and one INT. The Terps never really got anything going on offense as they produced less than 200 yards offense in the windy and rainy conditions, which were prevalent mainly in the first half.
“It didn't seem as though they were as affected by the elements as we were,” head coach Mike Locksley said after the game on 247sports.com. “[It] starts with me as the head coach and everybody staff wise, including our players. [We] didn't play our best today and again that's on us. [I] still have a lot of confidence in this group coming out of this thing and because of how connected we are, I feel really confident that w e will get back to the drawing board just like we talked about, when something happens we got to flush it and get to the next play. Well, we got to flush this, make the necessary corrections and get to the next game and we'll be able to do that.”
Maryland is not having a bad season as expectations for this team were relatively high, though making a bowl game is always the first goal. That was accomplished after they beat Northwestern to become bowl-eligible. But if they lose to Penn State, they have Ohio State next. Most likely, their best chance of getting win number 7 will come against Rutgers at home on Nov. 26.
By Nov. 26, the Terps will need a healthy Tagovailoa, who suffered a slight knee injury in their 38-33 win over Indiana on Oct. 15. He's completing 69.9% of his passes for 2,078 yards with 14 TDs and six INTs. He'll need help from Roman Hemby, who has 747 yards passing with seven TDs (6.2ypc). The leading re ceiver is Rakim Jarrett, who has 34 catches for 376 yards and three TDs, but is expected to a game-time decision with a leg injury.
The defense is adequate against the run, allowing 138 yards per game (55th) and struggles against the pass, allowing 240 yards per game (85th).