What To Watch For: Ohio State Hosts Maryland On Homecoming

Here's what you need to keep an eye out for as the Buckeyes prepare to play Maryland for the first time in two years.

Author:
Brendan Gulick
Oct 9, 2021 8:19 AM EDT

As Ohio State and Maryland inch closer to kickoff today, here are a few keys to the game and a couple things that we are watching for this afternoon:

Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa is coming off a very poor performance against Iowa last week, during which the Terrapin quarterbacks combined to throw seven interceptions. First and foremost, if Maryland plays like that today, this game will be over early. Tagovailoa is a very good quarterback and I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he won't do that again. But Ohio State should be looking for every way they can think of to make him uncomfortable early in the game and force him into bad decisions.

His counterpart C.J. Stroud is coming off the most efficient game of his career. Stroud passed the eye test with flying colors last week for the first time and gave Ohio State fans a glimpse at his superstar potential. Look for Stroud to get rolling early in this one.

The other big key for Ohio State today is easier said than accomplished. The second half of the schedule is going to be much more difficult than the first half. OSU has a chance to get healthy during the bye and go into the Indiana game as healthy as possible and with a lot of momentum. They need to go play a clean game today and try to do everything possible to protect the star players that you're going to have to lean on down the stretch.