Maryland football lost one of the most heartbreaking games in program history Saturday, falling to No. 10 Ohio State 52-51 in overtime.
While a moral victory doesn’t show up in the standings and doesn’t make Maryland bowl eligible, it is worth taking some time to reflect on the fact that Maryland scored 51 points on Ohio State, given what happened in its previous four meetings against the Buckeyes.
Let’s break down Maryland’s offensive performance on Saturday compared to how the prior four meetings between the teams went.
2018 points: 51
2014-2017 average points: 17.25
Maryland more than doubled the points scored from its previous four games against the Buckeyes. The most points the Terps had ever scored against Ohio State before Saturday was 28, which came in Randy Edsall’s final game as Maryland head coach back in 2015. Maryland’s 2016 and 2017 contests were especially underwhelming days when it came to scoring, as they averaged 8.5 points per game.
2018 yards per play: 8.8
2014-2017 yards per play: 3.6
Once again, we see Maryland more than doubling its production from the average of the last four Ohio State games. The stat really becomes impressive when you realize that last year in the Horseshoe, the Terps had a comically low 1.20 yards per play. Thanks to the explosiveness of Anthony McFarland, Maryland moved the ball against Ohio State like it had never done before.
2018 yards per completion: 28.0
2014-2017 yards per completion: 9.4
You’re never going to believe this, but in yet another stat, Maryland more than doubled its production compared to its average from the 2014-2017 contests. The Terps only completed seven passes, but most of them went for huge gains, like this 56-yard connection from Tyrrell Pigrome to Dontay Demus.
2018 yards per carry: 7.2
2014-17 yards per carry: 2.8
The easiest way to break down this stat is to just put this video here and move along.
Anthony McFarland broke a huge TD run against Ohio State.
Five minutes later, he did it again. pic.twitter.com/cU8eVYGvAB
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 17, 2018
These stats won’t make Maryland’s loss sting any less, but it really is remarkable how much better the offense was in Saturday’s meeting than it was in any of the prior four games against Ohio State. It shows that Maryland has the talent to hang around with a blue blood program like Ohio State, which was something the program barely did in its first four years as a member of the Big Ten.