PREVIEW – Week 5: Running Game Will Tell the Tale When Penn State Visits Maryland
Coming off an early-season bye week, Penn State travels to College Park, Maryland for their first road test of the season.
The Nittany Lions are 3-0 on the year with victories over Idaho, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh. There were some shaky moments in the first three games for Penn State, but ultimately the defense has been able to come up big, especially against Pitt, and keep the Nittany Lions undefeated.
This will be the Big 10 season opener for both Penn State and Maryland, who are 2-1 with dominating wins over Howard and Syracuse, and a close loss to Temple at The Linc.
There’s no doubt College Park will be jumping for the Friday night game, and things could get dicey for Penn State if they don’t come out strong in the first half. Something they’ve been unable to do in their previous two games.
Can Journey Brown Solidify himself as the lead back?
Penn State’s game against Pitt was closer than it needed to be, and the key reason for that was Sean Clifford was unable to connect on the deep balls we’ve seen him complete this year. Well, that and Pitt QB Kenny Pickett had the game of his life.
Clifford, who was 14-30 for 222 yards, needed to be picked up by the running game. He was to a degree, in the form of a Barkley-esque run by Journey Brown for 85 yards. Brown finished the game with 10 carried for 109 yards, which was enough to bump him to the top of James Franklin’s depth chart.
Penn State has been unable to get their running game going, and that probably has something to do with the fact that the carries have been few and far between for all four backs, and none have had a substantial workload to date. Journey Brown may be able to create some separation on Friday.
Temple was able to keep Maryland at bay using a two-back approach, but it remains to be seen who among Noah Cain, Devyn Ford and Ricky Slade will step up.
On the other side of the ball, the Nittany Lions will need to contain a rejuvenated Maryland offense lead by quarterback Josh Jackson and running back Anthony McFarland. McFarland had his best game of the season with 132 yards on the ground against Temple.
Penn State has been unable to get off the field on third down in general, but it will be especially tough in third and short situations with McFarland running. Maryland has proven itself to be an explosive team, but Temple laid out a blueprint to slow them down.
Penn State has absolutely dominated the series against Maryland going 39-2-1 against the Terrapins, but things appear to be turning under new coach Mike Locksley.
Prediction
Penn State 38 – Maryland 17
Penn State will be the best competition Maryland has faced this year, and we’ll find out if their hot start was a mirage or if they’re the real deal.
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