D.J. Durkin had a rough go of it last year against his former boss, falling in Ann Arbor 59-3. I'm obviously not expecting a repeat of that, but it's tough to see a path to victory for Maryland. Granted the full year yo-yo for the banged up Terps continues, as a week after they salvaged some bowl hopes with an upset win over Indiana, they turned around and fell to Rutgers. You'd like to see Michigan open it up a bit, after relying almost exclusively on the run game during Peters' first game and a half as the quarterback. Michigan can probably win with that formula again, but you'd have to think that over the final two weeks they need to be much more diverse. There's probably no secondary better to get some confidence against than Maryland and their 261.2 ypg allowed, to go with conference worst 7.3 ypa and 13 passing touchdowns allowed. Maryland may have figured something out under center with Ryan Brand, the dual threat Air Force transfer who played his high school ball in Detroit, but didn't get a sniff from the Wolverines. He was 8-12 passing against Rutgers, and didn't get a chance to show what he can do with his legs. He might be a more natural fit for an offense that was designed for either Tyrrell Pigrome or Kasim Hill to be under center. This offense simply never looked comfortable without them, even when Bortenschlager played well. This should be a good test for the Michigan defense, which last time they played an offense with a pulse, was getting dissected by Trace McSorley and Saquan Barkley. The Terps offense isn't great, 12th in the Big Ten in total offense, but Michigan has otherwise only faced the 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th and 14th ranked offenses in the conference. And what Maryland has, that those other struggling offenses don't is pretty good weapons at all skill positions. Ty Johnson and D.J. Moore are far better than anything Purdue, Rutgers or Minnesota will throw at you. The key to stopping Michigan is to get them behind the sticks, where they've struggled badly all year on 3rd down, but Maryland doesn't have the front to do that. If Michigan can stay ahead of the chains, it should be another grind out victory. It will be interesting to see how Harbaugh balances the sure thing, with knowing he needs to prepare to do more the next two weeks.
MICHIGAN 33, MARYLAND 20
