Purdue Football Enters Week as Slight Underdog in Road Game Against Maryland
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Following a 20-10 upset of No. 21 Minnesota last week, Purdue football finds itself at 3-2 and 1-1 in Big Ten play before its second straight road matchup. The team is scheduled to take on Maryland at noon ET inside SECU Stadium in College Park, Md., on Saturday.
It will be just the fourth meeting between the two programs, with the Boilermakers looking to equalize the all-time series at two games each. They are 1-2 against the Terrapins dating back to the 2006 season but earned a dominant 40-14 victory at Ross-Ade Stadium in 2019.
However, Maryland has been turning heads early in 2022, racing to a 4-1 record through five games. Its only defeat was a one-score loss to No. 4 Michigan on the road. Entering Saturday's matchup, Purdue is a 3-point underdog, according to SISportsbook.com. The over/under is 59 points.
"We've got our hands full," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said Monday. "It's a different opponent than what we faced last week in a lot of different ways. So we've got to prepare accordingly and adjust some things to get us, hopefully, an opportunity to go out there and compete and get the game in the fourth quarter and see where it goes from there."
The Terrapins are coming off a 27-13 home win over the Michigan State Spartans in Week 5. The team accounted for 489 total yards of offense, led by redshirt freshman running back Antwain Littleton II. He rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown on 19 attempts, good for 6.3 yards per carry.
Maryland boasts the Big Ten's third-ranked offense, totaling 476.6 total yards per game on the season. Redshirt junior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa averages 283.2 passing yards per contest, which is third in the conference. He's second in the league with an astounding 75.5 completion percentage, trailing only Michigan's J.J. McCarthy.
"They've got good skill on the outside, a really good quarterback," Brohm said. "They like to throw the ball. Their defense has definitely improved upon last year and done a really good job, and they're a very good overall team."
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.