The Maryland Terrapins host the Illinois Fighting Illini in the early slate on Saturday. Both teams have some significant issues to navigate in this one. Illinois is likely to again be without starting QB Katin Houser, which casts a cloud over the entire offense. The Illini managed a win at home last week against Oregon without Houser, but that also says a lot about Oregon these days. As for Maryland, this team has lost five games in a row, fired a coach midseason and is apparently now offering scholarship dollars for students to stay for all four quarters. Yikes. Your guess is as good as mine as to who wins this game, but I like the game total to go over.
Both Maryland and Illinois have been “over” teams this season. Maryland is 6-1 to the over, while Illinois is 5-2 to the over. That should get our attention. That usually means the offenses are better than the defenses, and the stats bear that out. Maryland does have a good young QB, and Illinois is really bad against the pass. That should mean points. The Illini are working with a backup QB, and that means they will want to run the ball. Guess what Maryland is bad at? This just seems like a spot where both defenses will struggle to get stops, and once the scoring starts, it should escalate in a hurry. Let’s play the game total over.
Illinois vs Maryland prediction: Over 54.5 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable to 57.5.
