Behind enemy lines: Ohio State edition

Maryland will prepare for its toughest test of the 2023 season when they head to Columbus on Friday to face fourth-ranked Ohio State. Maryland will look to pull off its first win against the Buckeyes since joining the Big Ten, and with the noon start kicking off FOX's Big Noon slate, one team will come away with its first loss of the season. After defeating Notre Dame in South Bend, Ohio State is coming off a bye weekend as they return to conference play. What should fans expect from Ohio State QB Kyle McCord? What can fans expect from the Buckeyes defense? We go behind enemy lines with Garrick Hodge from Eleven Warriors to learn more.

IBG: Coming off a big road win against Notre Dame followed by a bye, what’s the vibe around the Ohio State program heading into this weekend? Certainly a lot better than if they had lost, I can tell you that. It's incredible how much perception can change around a team from just a single play. If they end up losing that game on that last play, there's a giant discourse about Ryan Day in Columbus with the fanbase and the Buckeyes have zero room for error the rest of the way to get into the CFP. Instead, there's a quiet confidence around the team after pulling that one out, especially around quarterback Kyle McCord since he now has a clutch game-winning drive under his belt. The team now knows it's capable of taking down a talented opponent on the road and is hoping to use the win as a launching pad going forward. That aside, Ryan Day said Tuesday the team is moving on to Maryland and knows he's only a third of the way through the season and will have to survive the Big Ten gauntlet if the Buckeyes want to achieve their goals this season. Day mentioned last year's close contest against Maryland in College Park certainly has his and the players' attention, and I don't expect them to take the Terps lightly. Especially since they're off to a 5-0 start.

IBG: Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa enters the weekend leading the Big Ten in multiple passing categories, but Kyle McCord isn’t far behind as the Buckeyes actually have the top passing offense in the Big Ten. What’s worked well in year one of McCord and where have been some areas of concern? Well, it's helped that he has arguably the best one-two wide receiver combination in college football with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, a talented pass-catching tight end in Cade Stover and a dynamic running back in TreVeyon Henderson to help take the pressure off. But anyone that knows McCord will tell you the same thing about his mantra: He's calm, cool and collected. He has always maintained a level head and does not get rattled. That couldn't be more apparent than in his game-winning drive against Notre Dame. It wasn't perfect, he made a few mistakes by throwing a near-interception and also committing an intentional grounding penalty on a separate play. But the play after he was called for grounding, McCord made a pass that only a handful of passers can make to Emeka Egbuka to covert a third-and-19 that set up Chip Trayanum's eventual walk-off one-yard touchdown run. In short, McCord is at his best passing from the pocket and attacking short and intermediate routes. He's converted on several deep shots in his first three games prior to Notre Dame, but OSU has had a clear talent advantage in each of those contests. A good chunk of his mistakes can be chalked up to inexperience thus far, and it's important to remember he was splitting 50 percent of the first-team reps in practice with Devin Brown until after Week 2. While it's too early to say he'll be anywhere near C.J. Stroud's caliber, OSU is confident it has solidified the QB position and he'll get better with each passing week.

IBG: The Buckeyes will be the undoubted toughest test for Maryland’s offense so far as Ohio State sits among the nation’s best in scoring defense, total defense and passing yards allowed per game. What’s made the backline so dominant under DC Jim Knowles? It's really weird to say this considering it's been their Achilles' heel the past few seasons in big games, but pass defense has been OSU's biggest strength defensively. The Buckeyes are No. 5 nationally in passing yards allowed per game like you mentioned and have faced two pretty darn good QBs the last two games in WKU's Austin Reed and Notre Dame's Sam Hartman. Denzel Burke has established himself as one of the best shutdown cornerbacks in the country and the Fighting Irish respected him so much they hardly threw his direction two weeks ago. The safety play has also been pretty consistent, with Josh Proctor and Lathan Ransom having nice years and Sonny Styles quickly establishing himself as a presence on OSU's defense. On the side opposite Burke, Davison Igbinosun is a very aggressive cornerback and has largely held up well, but he has given up a few yards here and there. Up front, it's always beneficial for any defense to have a steady linebacker duo of Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers, but it's also been very impressive to see defensive tackle Tyleik Williams emerge as a true impact player and run stopper this season, something I can't say a lot of people expected at the beginning of the year, at least not to this level.

IBG: With Maryland’s offensive line under the microscope this season, the Terps have only allowed three sacks through five games. The Buckeyes present a different challenge but have only registered five sacks, the second-fewest in the Big Ten. Is the stat deceiving through four games or are there signs of concern in the Buckeyes’ front seven? I don't get the impression they're concerned about it whatsoever after hearing from Jim Knowles the past few weeks. Lots of people have a love/hate relationship with PFF's pass-rush analytics, myself included, but on the analytical side, they have a very high pass-rush win rate. But still, you would like to see them bring the quarterback down a lot more than they have. The first two teams they faced were very run-heavy offenses, and Austin Reed and Sam Hartman are very much get it and rip it types of passers. They're hoping they can finally pick up some sacks against Taulia this week, but weirdly enough, the defense has been pretty solid despite the lack of consistent results in the pass rush. If they can start racking up sacks, an already stout unit gets even more terrifying.

IBG: for Ohio State to win, one thing they need to do is… I'd say not allow many big chunk plays defensively. When Ohio State has been gashed in previous years, it's usually because of a defensive breakdown or a missed tackle leading to a gain of 30-plus for the opposing offense. It's inevitably going to happen sometimes throughout the course of the year, but going back to the Michigan and Georgia losses last season, both teams had big gains far too often and it cost the Buckeyes dearly. Maryland is a team certainly capable of exploiting a defense for chunk plays if they're misaligned in any way, so OSU's secondary is going to get yet another test to see if it's truly taken a step forward from the past few seasons.

IBG: Score & prediction I think this may be the best Maryland team Ohio State has faced in the pair's previous eight meetings, but I'm just not sure that the Terps are ready to go into Columbus and beat a team with the talent the Buckeyes have quite yet. In Ryan Day's tenure at OSU, the Buckeyes have had six off weeks in the regular season, and beat their opponents by an average of 41 points in those six contests coming off the bye. I certainly don't think it will be that lopsided Saturday, but I think shutting down Egbuka, Harrison Jr., Henderson and Stover is a tall task for any defense. I'm also buying OSU's resurgence defensively, though I'd make the argument Tagovailoa is the conference's best quarterback. I believe Ohio State wins this contest 38-17.

Behind enemy lines: Ohio State edition

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