On Saturday, the #5 ranked Wisconsin Badgers host the Maryland Terrapins in a Big 10 battle. The Badgers look to beat the Terrapins this weekend in order to continue their climb up in the rankings and to stay undefeated. Maryland has lost two straight and look to rebound in Madison, WI. Kickoff inside Camp Randall Stadium is at 12 PM ET.
These two teams have played each other twice all-time, and the Badgers have won both meetings by an average of 41 ppg to 15 ppg.
The Badgers (6-0, 3-0 Big 10) continue to truck over their opponents and look to do the same this weekend against Maryland. Wisconsin is coming off an unimpressive win over Purdue, where they only defeated the Boilermakers 17-9 despite being a big favorite. The Badgers will look to put up more points this weekend against the Terrapins porous defense.
Maryland (3-3, 1-2 Big 10) has lost 3 out of their last 4 games, including their last two straight conference games. In fact they were outscored 99-35 in their last two games. The Terrapins are hoping that they can sneak by Wisconsin this week like they did to Minnesota two weeks ago.
The spread opened with Wisconsin favored by 23.5 points. It currently sits at -24 points for the Badger. The Over/Under opened at 54 total points and has come down to 50.5 points.
Wisconsin has not done a good job with the spread this year in Big 10 play. They are currently 1-2 ATS in Big 10 play and it’s hard to trust them this week when the spread is at 24 points, especially after they played uninspired football against Purdue and 3 weeks ago against Northwestern. So, that’s why the Over/Under is a better play in this matchup.
The Over is 4-2 in Wisconsin’s 6 games this year and has hit in 3 out of their last 4 games this season. Overall, the Over is 8-3 in their last 11 games. For Maryland, the Over is 6-1 in their last 7 road games.
Make no mistake about it, Wisconsin should win this game. The Terrapins have a bad defense that gives up 439 total yards per game and 36.5 points per game. Wisconsin comes in averaging 36 ppg and 466 total yards per game. So, this game has the potential for a blowout victory by the Badgers. And, normally I would say that this will definitely happen, but Wisconsin has played down to their opponent’s level on a few occasions this season and that scares me away from the large spread.
The game will be won by Wisconsin’s rushing attack that averages 263 yards per game and is led by Jonathan Taylor who has 986 rushing yards on the season and 10 rushing touchdowns. Maryland gives up 174 rushing yards per game and Wisconsin will easily blow by that number. I expect the Badgers to hit the 300 yard mark in this game as the Terrapins are inferior on the defensive line.
In their 3 losses, Maryland has given up a combined 137 points, which averages out to roughly 46 points per game. I expect Wisconsin to hit the 40 point mark in this one, and Maryland to chip in at least 14 points to easily cover the Over. The Terrapins are averaging 31 ppg, but they only have scored 15 ppg in their 3 losses.
The Badgers will give up a few scores late in the game and allow some garbage time points to Maryland. The Terrapins struggle passing the ball, but they have had some modest success this season on the ground with an average of 178 rushing yards per game. Unfortunately, they’re going up against a great defense that only allows 78 rushing yards per game and only 265 total yards per game. In other words, Maryland is in for a long day, and will get blown out by a score of 42-14. Or it could easily turn out to be a 28-24 game if Wisconsin plays like they did last week. Either way, this game is going over 50 points.