Maryland Football got a crucial homecoming win versus Indiana and took one more step towards bowl eligibility. Regional rival and #22 Penn State comes to town this weekend, starting the toughest stretch of the season for the Terps.
It wasn’t a dominant performance for Maryland Football this past weekend, but it got the job done. Terrapin QB Taulia Tagovailoa bounced back from a rough three-week funk with arguably his most efficient game of the season, passing for 419 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 38 – 35 win. Carlos Carriere had a breakout game in his own right with 8 catches for 134 yards and 2 touchdowns. The offense returned back to the form that got the team off to its fast start in the first half of the season. The defense is hurting though, giving up 204 rushing yards and still looking relatively vulnerable to big plays on the ground or in the air. If the Terrapins hope to pull the upset this week at home against the Nittany Lions, that penchant for negative big plays needs to go the way of the dodo.
Penn State comes to town with an identical 5-3 record, having lost back-to-back games to Illinois and Ohio State respectively. With a race to bowl eligibility on the line, the game is shaping up to be one of the bigger ones in recent memory for terps football. A win against Penn State before the second part of murderer’s row on the schedule would ensure said bowl eligibility and become tangible evidence of progress for a program that’s taken its share of big blows this season. A loss puts Maryland Football behind the proverbial 8-ball as the season winds to a close, with Michigan and a surging Michigan State waiting in the wings. Let’s take a look at how the Terps could potentially pull out a win this Saturday.