No. 5 Ohio State rolls into Saturday afternoon’s Big Ten matchup with Maryland as a heavy favorite, but the matchup still has a few moving parts worth watching.
The biggest one is on the perimeter, where Jeremiah Smith has turned Ohio State’s passing game into a weekly headline. The junior wide receiver is coming off 11 catches for 206 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-14 win at then-No.
14 Iowa, and he’s piled up 23 receptions for 423 yards and six scores over the last two games. If he does it again, it would be his third straight game with at least 200 receiving yards.
That’s the sort of production Maryland has to account for, and Terrapins coach Michael Locksley knows it.
"When I think of playing teams that have explosive playmakers like that, I think the thing that comes to mind for defending them is, how do you cup it?," Maryland coach Michael Locksley said. "How do you keep it in front of you and do a really good job of cupping the skilled players that they have, and that means playing with depth, good eyes and vision, and then doing a really good job of a bunch of guys running to the football?"
Ohio State’s offense has been built to stress defenses through the air. The Buckeyes are second nationally with 357 passing yards per game, and Maryland’s defense is walking into a tough assignment. The Terrapins have held opponents under 250 passing yards in eight straight road games, the fourth-longest active streak in the FBS, but this season they’re still allowing 198.4 passing yards per game, which ranks 57th nationally.
Locksley said the bigger concern is simply finding a way to survive long enough to matter in the fourth quarter.
"The attention is mostly focused on what do we have to do to prepare ourselves?" Locksley said. "Against a team like Ohio State, the goal for us is: how do we get a game like that into the fourth quarter to give us any chance?"
Maryland has a receiver who can help keep things interesting. Junior Chris Durr Jr. is second nationally with 8.4 receptions per game, just behind Smith’s 8.8, and he has caught at least six passes in every game this season. That gives the Terrapins at least one weapon capable of matching Ohio State’s firepower for stretches.
They may also try to challenge Buckeyes sophomore cornerback Devin Sanchez, who is in his first season as a starter and has been flagged for pass interference twice in each of the last two games. Ryan Day said this is an important week for him.
"I think his approach has been good, but I think he would tell you that he wants to play better, too," Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. "So, this is a big week for him to step up against some really talented receivers from Maryland to take the next step in his progression because he's played for us, but we need him to be that lockdown corner that we all know he can be."
Maryland comes in on a three-game skid after a 48-23 loss at Nebraska last week, and Locksley didn’t try to soften that reality.
"I'll start by acknowledging that obviously the last three weeks isn't good enough, isn't the standard that we need to have for our program," Locksley said. "Our players know it.
We, as coaches, know it. Obviously, I know it.
But nobody's hanging their heads. We've got a lot of work to do, and we're going to keep working through it."
The series history also tilts heavily toward Ohio State. The Buckeyes are 9-0 against Maryland and have topped 60 points four times in those meetings.
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