Michigan Football can’t afford to overlook Maryland

After fighting through the regular season to get to 9-1, Michigan football can’t afford a slip-up in State Park.

This is it. If everything falls into place as it should, Michigan football is looking at a game for all-of-the-marbles against OSU on November 27th.

Standing in the way before that game though is one final test. One final chance for Michigan to enjoy the week before it’s gets extremely serious.

Michigan cannot afford to take Maryland lightly. Just as we saw with MSU against Purdue after beating Michigan, notching a big win can have lingering effects for a team that gets too high off the highs.

Michigan cannot afford to have a slip-up after coming so close to setting up a winner-takes-all showdown. Michigan’s veterans need to harp on the team. The Wolverines haven’t won a damn thing.

As we sometimes see, they tend to sleepwalk in games against inferior opponents. Games against Rutgers, Northwestern, and Indiana come to mind.

Although Maryland has a terrible defense (just like Michigan State) the Terrapins can put points up in a hurry. Their QB Taulia Tagovailoa (the brother of Tua Tagovailoa) has thrown for 300+ yards in six games this season.

That means has thrown for over 300 yards in over half of Big Ten games this season. To say he is dangerous is an understatement.

The only reason that Taulia isn’t talked about more is that Maryland has really underwhelmed this season and the defense has been atrocious. Despite these hefty numbers, Taulia hasn’t led Maryland to many victories, which is why nobody in the Big Ten is talking about Taulia.

Maryland is a good matchup for Michigan this week

To be honest, this is the best possible matchup Michigan could have (besides MSU) in preparation for the game against OSU. The fact that it comes THE week before is even better, to be honest.

Maryland passes the ball way more than they run the ball. This is exactly what Ohio State does in their games. If Maryland can’t run the ball, then the Terps abandon the run and pretty much start air raiding the opposing defense. Exact same deal as Ohio State.

Maryland and OSU’s strategies are exactly the same on offense: keep testing the opposing secondary’s until it finally breaks.

If Michigan football doesn’t play a clean game against Maryland, then the Wolverines could find themselves in a little dogfight, as Maryland was in the game with PSU until the fourth quarter.

This game and the OSU one might see Michigan’s secondary tested the most the entire season. Maryland and OSU love to stretch the field, attack vertically, and get explosive plays.

After fighting through mid-season adversity, Michigan can’t afford to have a letdown.
Let’s hope that the defense expresses its superiority early, and Michigan puts its foot on Maryland’s throat and moves on to next week. Quick and simple.