Behind Enemy Lines: Ohio State

The Terps played their most complete game of the season last week, dismantling Indiana by a score of 44-17. They were led by Taulia Tagovailoa, who threw for 352 yards and a career-high five touchdown passes.

Maryland now heads into Saturday's game at No. 4 Ohio State (4-0) with a perfect 5-0 record for the first time since 2001.

TSR went in depth with BuckeyeHuddle.com writer Kevin Noon to get some perspective on the Buckeyes and his thoughts on Saturday's matchup between Maryland and Ohio State.

How would you assess the play of starting quarterback Kyle McCord thus far? How does he stack up against recent starters CJ Stroud and Justin Fields? How, if any, has he grown as a player over the first third of the season?

It has been a learning process for McCord with some good (the final drive against Notre Dame) and some not-as-good mixed in.

It would not be fair to lump him in yet with the Stroud’s and Fields’ of the world yet at this point because we remember what the finished product of each of those quarterbacks looked like and McCord is still early in his journey.

Ohio State fans were calling for Stroud to be benched for McCord just a couple of starts into his journey and now Stroud is an early favorite to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year after being a two-time Heisman finalist at Ohio State (yeah, but what about the Michigan game, a few will still proclaim).

He still seems to miss open receivers as he is going through his reads, but he is starting to get better with that. It doesn’t hurt when you have a couple of receivers like Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka out there, but the offense itself has not changed dramatically, you just have a younger (in experience) quarterback out there still sorting things out.

You can go to the game against Western Kentucky to see what this offense could be capable of, and it is going to happen, the dam is going to break.

Will it be this week?

There sure are a lot of bettors in Las Vegas that would like to know the answer about that one.

Do you expect Marvin Harrison Jr. to be at full strength this week? Who are some other playmakers on offense that Maryland fans should keep an eye on?

Marvin said his ankle was, “Good enough”.

He played all last season with an ankle injury and did quite alright for himself. But you have to figure anything less than 90-percent is going to have an impact on his top-end speed.

But what makes Harrison so dangerous is his route running and even minutes after coming out of the injury tent, we still saw the same old Harrison when it came to route running.

Ohio State’s No. 2 receiver would be No. 1 on almost any other team out there is Emeka Egbuka. He will generally play inside out of the slot, and I feel it is safe to say that everyone is already well aware of what he is capable of doing.

The wildcard in my opinion is No. 17 Carnell Tate. He has a heap of praise in the preseason as being “the next guy”, but the way that Ohio State recruits, they have a class full of players with that designation.

Tate has had moments this season to show what he is capable of doing, but with Ohio State’s inability to pull away from many opponents this season, those times that normally would be reserved for guys outside the starting lineup have been limited.

And then of course Ohio State brings in a talented running back group.

By the time these two teams played last season, Ohio State’s RB corps was so depleted that Dallan Hayden, then a true freshman, was called up and played well against the Terps. He is likely redshirting this season and the vets will be playing in TreVeyon Henderson, Chip Trayanum and Miyan Williams.

Ohio State's pass defense ranks in the top 5 nationally, yet the Buckeyes as a team rank 104th in tackles for loss and 114th in sacks. Why has the Buckeyes pass rush struggled so much thus far? Do you see this as a potential issue Saturday when they take on the Terps?

I have covered football for a long time and have never seen standings dictated by sacks or TFLs, it is how many points you score versus how many you give up, and Ohio State (like Maryland) is on the right side of that with perfect records going into this game.

What doesn’t get its own stat category is the pressure that is created and forcing quarterbacks to either speed up or abandon their reads, and Ohio State has done a good job of that.

I am asked daily “where is the pass rush” by Ohio State and I tell people to quit reading the stat book and to put the game on.

Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau have been in the backfield as have tackles Mike Hall and Tyleik Williams.

Are they getting home?

No.

But you have, as you mentioned, a top-five defense still with the Buckeyes.

As for what this means with the Maryland game?

We know Taulia Tagovailoa is very mobile, even if there is a false belief that he will run all over an opponent.

He doesn’t have to with his ability to prolong plays and still make passes.

The Buckeyes have not faced a QB like him this year, despite facing a couple of talented ones in Austin Reed (WKU) and Sam Hartman (ND) and it is going to take a lot of discipline going against this Terps offense.

With apologies to Drew Allar out of Penn State, I think Taulia is going to be one of the two biggest challenges that Ohio State will face all year at QB (at least on the known schedule) with JJ McCarthy at Michigan being the other.

Who are some playmakers on defense that Maryland fans should be aware of?

I already mentioned four of Ohio State’s defensive linemen in the previous section but if this game really becomes a passing game for the Terps, it is going to be Ohio State’s secondary.

Denzel Burke is CB1 for the Buckeyes and Notre Dame really didn’t even try and attack his way. That leaves a rotation of Jordan Hancock and former Ole Miss CB Davison Igbinosun at the other spot.

Hancock had an up-and-down year last year but has really rounded back into shape this season. Igbinosun almost looks like a linebacker just with his height and length, but he is a corner. A handsy corner, and officials have taken notice. Ohio State is not going to coach out that aggressiveness, but his technique sometimes can get him flagged.

Also keep an eye out for Sonny Styles, who is a safety, really more of a hybrid safety/linebacker. He is better in run support and in obvious running situations where the Terps are looking to get the ball to Roman Hemby, Styles will be there to clean things up.

And if you catch him out there in a passing down?

He does just fine there too, though he is still a bit of a rotational player here in his second year with the Buckeyes.

What does Maryland need to do Saturday in order to come away with the biggest win for the program since joining the Big Ten?

I have thought about this one as I work on my prediction for the game.

Even with close to a three-touchdown line in favor of the Buckeyes, I have seen scenarios in my mind where it could all come crashing down for Ohio State.

But a lot of those things are on Ohio State as well, still celebrating the Notre Dame win, or getting ahead of themselves in the schedule.

If Ohio State allows Taulia all day in the pocket to scan the field, at some point, someone is going to get open.

If Maryland can extend drives and keep the Ohio State offense on the sidelines. If Ohio State only gets eight or nine offensive series in the game, that will severely limit the chances to put points on the board.

If Maryland can keep the Ohio State run game in check. Ohio State’s run blocking has not been great this year and even with a 61-yard touchdown against Notre Dame in its last game, the other 25 (approx..) carries didn’t amount for much outside of the final one-yarder.

These are a few of the things that would need to happen for Ohio State to be on serious upset alert. It does not need to be all of them, by any stretch. But if you picked a couple of those, Ohio State could face serious adversity.

Prediction? Who wins and why?

I have thought about this one for a while and as of the time I am writing this for you guys, I have not put “pen to paper” on one yet.

Maryland has not been good against Ohio State at Ohio State. The margin of victory has been close to 45 points in favor of Ohio State in those four previous games.

Now, Ohio State had quarterbacks who were further along in their development, offenses that were putting up 40-plus points per game.

This offense is not quite there yet.

But in many of those instances, Ohio State did not have the defense that it has this year and while I said that Taulia may be the 2nd best QB on Ohio State’s schedule, Maryland’s schedule has not afforded the Terps to play anyone with a defensive pulse.

Ohio State is no longer giving up the “big plays” that Maryland thrives on. The longest touchdown play given up this year for Ohio State has been two yards.

I am not sure if that is going to continue to be the trend through this game with the pressure the Maryland offense puts on a defense, but I also think that it could be a feast-or-famine situation for the Terps.

I don’t think the Maryland run game is going to be strong enough to prolong drives, so there is going to be a lot of all-or-nothing moments for the Maryland offense. They will get all a couple of times, but there will be a whole lot of nothing too.

As for Ohio State’s offense, I don’t think we are going to be walking out of Ohio Stadium saying that Ohio State’s offense is back to full-on Death Star status like it was in previous years, but the headlines will talk about how the offense took a medium step in the right direction.

Does Ohio State win this game by its average MOV? Absolutely not.

Does Ohio State cover? Yes, but it is going to be damn close (to the line).

Ohio State 38, Maryland 17

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