COLLEGE PARK - Ohio State tight end Jeff Heuerman said during the week that the Buckeyes were going to show Maryland 'what Big Ten football is.'
They did, beating the Terps, 52-24, in Maryland's first conference home game as a member of the Big Ten.
The Terps (4-2) were overmatched along the offensive line, overmatched by the No. 20 Buckeyes' offense and simply outplayed in pretty much every facet of the game.
This was a chance for Maryland to show it could compete with the better teams in the Big Ten conference.
But this was a clear step back after the Terps' win at Indiana last week.
To be fair, Ohio State (4-1) is consistently one of the better teams in the country and had beaten its previous two opponents by a combined score of 116-28. But these are the games the Terps will have to win or at least be competitive in to be viewed as a legitimate threat in the Big Ten.
And it was clear that Maryland was going to struggle with the Buckeyes from the Terps' first series on each side of the ball.
Ohio State drove 75 yards in eight plays for a touchdown on its first series and only needed to throw one pass during that drive as it picked up 67 yards on seven rushes.
The Buckeyes then stopped Maryland's offense after the Terps picked up one first down. Ohio State scored a touchdown to go up 14-0 just more than four minutes later. The Terps never trailed by 11 the rest of the game.
The Buckeyes led 31-10 at halftime, extended their lead to 38-10 early in the third quarter and led by 28 for most of the fourth quarter.
The only real bright spots for Maryland were a school-record 57-yard field by kicker Brad Craddock, a few tackles for a loss on defense and a few big passing plays from backup quarterback Caleb Rowe after he replaced starter C.J. Brown to begin the second half.
Ohio State outgained Maryland 533-310 and forced four Terps turnovers.
Buckeyes redshirt freshman quarterback J.T. Barrett was 18 of 23 for 267 yards with four touchdown passes and no interceptions while also running for 71 yards and a touchdown.
Ohio State also got 139 yards on 24 carries from sophomore running back Ezekiel Elliott.
Six of the Buckeyes' first 11 possessions on offense ended with touchdowns.
Maryland, meanwhile, got somewhat of a spark when Rowe entered for Brown.
However, Rowe threw an interception to end the first drive he was in for and later had two passes deflect off the hands of Terps players to Ohio State defenders for interceptions.
In all, Maryland quarterbacks finished with just one touchdown - a late scoring pass from Rowe to wide receiver Stefon Diggs - compared to four interceptions.
The Terps also averaged just 2.8 yards per carry on the ground.
Maryland has a bye week next week and will look to regroup before hosting Iowa on Oct. 18.
mzenitz@http://ift.tt/1sUphNh
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Posted by Unknown on Saturday, October 4, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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