The spread says Maryland is a formality. The schedule says it is the last quiet Saturday Ohio State will get for a while.
No. 5 Ohio State (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) hosts Maryland (2-3, 0-2) at 4:15 p.m. Saturday on the Big Ten Network at Ohio Stadium. The opening line has the Buckeyes favored by 34.5 points, and the series history supports that number: Ohio State has never lost to Maryland since the Terrapins joined the Big Ten and has scored at least 37 points in each of the previous nine meetings.
That is exactly why this is the dangerous game.
Ohio State just left Kinnick Stadium with a 31-14 win over Iowa, then ranked No. 14 and now No. 20. Julian Sayin completed 20 of 27 passes for 324 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. Jeremiah Smith caught 11 passes for 206 yards and two scores, outgaining Iowa’s entire offense by himself and passing Emeka Egbuka for the program’s career receptions record. Smith now owns the Ohio State marks for catches, receiving yards and touchdown receptions.
Seven days later, the Buckeyes are in Bloomington against No. 7 Indiana (5-0), noon Saturday, Oct. 17, on FOX. After a bye, they travel to No. 19 USC (5-1) on Oct. 31 and host No. 13 Oregon (3-1) on Nov. 7. Michigan is still on the calendar for noon Nov. 28, also on FOX. Three of the next four games after Maryland are against teams in the AP Top 25. Indiana is undefeated. Oregon and USC are both in the playoff conversation. None of those games will be played with a 34-point cushion.
Maryland is the sandwich game, and sandwich games are where ranked teams get sloppy.
The Terrapins are not a secret contender. They opened with a 62-0 win over Hampton and a 38-14 road win at UConn, then lost 35-26 to Virginia Tech, 54-3 at home to UCLA and 48-23 at Nebraska. Quarterback Malik Washington has thrown for 1,288 yards with seven touchdowns and six interceptions. Maryland is allowing more than 30 points a game and is 0-2 in the Big Ten. On paper, this is a homecoming tune-up.
On film, that is the problem.
Ohio State’s offense is built to punish bad coverage. The Buckeyes are averaging 514.4 yards and 42.2 points a game, with Sayin second nationally in passing yards at 357 per game and Smith already at 823 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. The defense is allowing 12.6 points and 267 yards a game. Against Ball State, Kent State and Illinois, that talent showed up early and often. Against Texas, it did not: a one-point loss in Austin is the only blemish on a resume that still has Ohio State fifth in the country.
Ryan Day’s team does not need Maryland to prove it can score. It needs Maryland to prove it will not coast.
A 34-point favorite that looks ahead tends to play the first half at half speed, rotate too early and leave the tape full of the things the next opponent will circle. Indiana will see every missed tackle, every empty run fit and every third-down conversion Ohio State gives away. USC and Oregon will see them too. The Buckeyes already know what a one-score margin feels like on the road. They do not need a second reminder against a team they are supposed to bury.
There is also the practical side. Sayin and Smith just carried a ranked road win. Bo Jackson and Ja’Kobi Jackson got the ball on the ground in Iowa City, with Ja’Kobi Jackson scoring. Saturday is the last chance to clean the run game, work the two-minute offense and get secondary snaps before a noon kickoff in Bloomington against an undefeated team that just flipped places with Alabama in the poll. Injuries in a 34-point game are the kind of self-inflicted wound that shows up two weeks later.
Maryland has a reason to play angry. The Terrapins have been blown out twice in conference play and have not beaten Ohio State. A homecoming crowd and a national television window, even on the Big Ten Network, is enough stage for a team trying to salvage a season. Trap games rarely look like traps until the favorite is still exchanging punts in the third quarter.
Maryland is the game that decides whether the Buckeyes arrive at that gauntlet sharp, or whether they spend the first quarter in Bloomington fixing something they should have finished in Columbus.
