My Thoughts.....Maryland

 

After a horrendous first half, the Ohio State Buckeyes snapped out of the doldrums by outscoring Maryland 27-7 in the second half to come away with a 37-17 victory. 

During the first half, Ohio State looked worse than they have in a while on both sides of the ball.  Particularly galling was the sad performance of the offensive line as they could generate no push at all on running plays.  Indeed, it was by virtue of two plays that the Buckeyes had any points at all, the pick-six by Josh Proctor and the 58-yard pass play to Marvin Harrison Jr.  So, the Buckeyes were very fortunate to enter the locker room at the half tied 10-10. 

However, after giving up a touchdown on the first drive of the second half, the Ohio State defense put the clamps on Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa.  He had one touchdown run, but the defense held him to under 200 yards passing, sacked him twice, and picked him twice.  While Tagovailoa had the tables turned on him in the second half, Kyle McCord was having his best game as a Buckeye in the second half.  McCord went 11-of-14 passing with 194 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.  The 320 passing yards McCord ended up with is his best thus far.  Marvin Harrison Jr. led the way with eight receptions for 163 yards and a touchdown.  Julian Fleming made a sliding catch at the four-yard line that helped Ohio State respond to the Maryland score in the third quarter, and Cade Stover showed he has some speed as he outran the Maryland secondary on a 44-yard scoring catch-and-run.  With TreVeyon Henderson held out due to his sore ankle, Chip Trayanum got the majority of carries, picking up 61 yards on his 20 carries.  Miyan Williams was limited to a mere 23 yards on his six carries as the offensive line struggles in the run game were painfully apparent.  Tommy Eichenberg led the way on defense with 13 tackles, but the player of the game on defense was Josh Proctor with his pick-six and several timely hits and a stop behind the line.  JT Tuimoloau had his best game of the year with two sacks on the elusive Tagovailoa.

While Ohio State showed great resilience against a decent Maryland team (which, by the way, this year’s Maryland squad is not the Maryland of old.  Coach Mike Locksley has done a fine job in gradually building this team into a squad that’ll be a tough opponent for Michigan and Penn State down the road), the lack of production on the ground continues to be a serious issue that could cost them down the road.