START YOUR BUCKEYEGROVE.COM PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP TODAY!

This is where I am supposed to come up with a fact or two to make this game seem more relevant and dangerous than it actually is. All I can say is that somehow, some way the Terps took Ohio State to overtime last year in College Park (Md.) and quite honestly, should have won the game if not for some late heroics by the Buckeyes and a dropped conversion by Maryland (but don't get me started on the amount of penalties that went uncalled on that final play).

Maryland has wins over Howard (the team, not just a guy), Syracuse and Rutgers. The win over Syracuse looked like a season defining win but the truth of the matter is that Maryland's season is more defined by a loss at home to Penn State, a 59-0 thrashing that honestly could have and should have been worse.

That win over Syracuse was a more telling sign about just how bad Syracuse is as a team than how good Maryland is as a team.

The Terps are averaging just shy of 18 points per game in Big Ten play, which is good for 11th in a league of 14 teams. Maryland also scored 48 points against Rutgers, meaning that if you take away that dunk on a five-foot backboard, the Terps have scored 59 points in five other league games, or just slightly better than 10 points per Big Ten contest.

That would not be bad if Maryland were only giving up six or seven points per league game (Ohio State is giving up 7.4 for the sake of argument). But that is not the case with Maryland giving up more than 38 points per conference game. Even take the Penn State game off the table (since we are making a point to take one outlier out of the equation) and the Terps are still surrendering 34.2 points per league game without the Penn State smackdown as part of things.

There are all sorts of numbers that we can show going into this game to try and convince everyone that the garage needs to be cleaned before the start of winter, or maybe it is a good chance to go to your daughter's dance recital or curl up with a good book. We will hold all of that until Rutgers week however, and just get to the ugly truth that is the Tale of the Tape for this upcoming Maryland game.

By this point, if you don't know what you have with the Buckeyes, you just are not paying attention. The Ohio State coaching staff will have to determine how long they want to leave Justin Fields out there in this game as they are constantly at the intersection of wanting to protect their thinnest position but also getting a relatively inexperienced quarterback as many live reps as possible. Fields has not thrown for more than 234 yards this season but that number can be eclipsed if the Buckeyes are locked in on throwing the ball. Saturday appears to be destined for being a cold day with some light winds but the build of the Horseshoe should not really interfere with any passing plans, if that is what is on the table. Could this be a big KJ Hill day with him having a combined three catches over the last two games? His lack of targets have meant more for Chris Olave who seems to be as hot of a receiver as anyone in the conference. Olave has 12 receptions in his last two games and four of his eight touchdowns on the season. This game (and the next) will give Ohio State some chances to either dial things down and not show much or put some other things on tape. Could this be a big week for the tight ends? Jeremy Ruckert leads the position with seven receptions on the year, or less than one per game. It just has a feeling that we could see a little bit more going to the tight end, even though we have been proven wrong on that front many times through the years.

The Terps have picked off seven passes this season but have been kind of snakebit with Marcus Lewis being questionable for this game, taking one of their better defenders off the field, potentially. The Buckeyes won't bring the most prolific passing offense that the Terps have seen this year into the game, that goes to Indiana, a team that threw for almost 340 yards in a 34-28 win. The worst output that the Terps faced was Penn State throwing for 421 yards, one of two games where the Terps have given up more than 400 passing yards. Even with Penn State and Purdue both having bigger passing numbers than Ohio State in terms of total yards, the Buckeyes are far and away the most efficient team in the conference (and among the national leaders) in passing efficiency. Ohio State has thrown for 28 passing touchdowns so far this season, seven more than any other team in the league and while Ohio State's 230.5 yards per game trails several other teams, only Minnesota is within five points of the Buckeyes in terms of passing efficiency with the next team (Penn State) checking almost 28 points behind them. When it comes to pass efficiency defense, Maryland is dead last in the league and has given up 17 passing touchdowns on the year. teams are completing better than 64-percent of their passes against the Terps and while Maryland does have the seven takeaways with interceptions, teams are throwing for 262.8 yards per game on the defense, almost twice as much as the Buckeyes are allowing at 132.8 yards per game.