Indiana and Maryland will look to put disappointing losses behind them Saturday when they meet in a Big Ten East battle in Bloomington, Ind.
Indiana held then-No. 4 Michigan to 10 points on the first six possessions of last week’s game in Bloomington. The Hoosiers headed into halftime tied and with an upset in their sights. Michigan outscored them 21-0 the rest of the way to win 31-10, handing Indiana (3-3, 1-2) its third straight loss.
Maryland (4-2, 1-2) fell a two-point conversion shy of forcing overtime with Purdue in a 31-29 home loss.
Rakim Jarrett caught a would-be game-tying conversion in the final minute, but lineman Delmar Glaze incurred an illegal-man-downfield penalty. Maryland replayed the try and failed to convert.
Penalties have resurfaced as a problem for Maryland. The Terrapins beat SMU in Week 3 despite 15 penalties for 141 yards. They had just one penalty in a close loss to Michigan but have committed nine in each of the past two games.
“The penalties at inopportune times kept a couple plays or a couple drives alive for (Purdue),” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “For us, again, that goes back to ‘Terps versus Terps,’ and we’ll continue to work through (it).”
Despite the loss, Maryland received four votes in the AP Top 25 poll this week.
Terps quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa ranks second in the conference with 1,731 passing yards, just six behind Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud. Tagovailoa has completed 74.1 percent of his passes, with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Indiana is led by Connor Bazelak, who is third in the conference in passing (1,597 yards), with nine touchdowns and six picks.
Indiana coach Tom Allen said his team’s effort has been consistent, but the Hoosiers’ execution needs to match it.
“It’s that consistency we’ve got to have,” Allen said. “I know we’re trying to play a lot of guys. That’s a challenge to be able to get all those guys on the same page. But when you see when the guys do it — we showed a whole bunch of clips this morning with our guys and said, ‘When we do these things the correct way, this is the result.'”
Allen replaced offensive line coach and run game coordinator Darren Hiller this week with alumnus Rod Carey, who previously was a defensive quality control coach.
The Hoosiers gained just 19 yards rushing against Michigan; they rank 124th out of 131 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in rushing offense (90.8 yards per game).
Maryland won last year’s meeting 38-35 in College Park, Md., but Indiana owns the all-time series lead 7-3.
–Field Level Media
