Penn State Football: Way too early game-by-game predictions for 2018
By Shane Lunnen
Penn State welcomes Maryland to Happy Valley for the season finale. The last two meetings have been all Nittany Lions, including last year’s 66-3 pummeling in College Park. Maryland hopes to keep it much closer this season.
The Terps had some really bad luck last season in their quarterback rotation, losing both Tyrrell Pigrome and Kasim Hill before the end of September. Max Bortenschlager started the rest of the season. He wasn’t terrible, but not very effective either. Hill will probably regain the starter job if he is healthy. The defense did the Terps no favors last year either, giving up 37 points per game.
Maryland was never in most games last year against the big boys of the conference, but they will hang with Penn State for a bit. Running back Ty Johnson will score the opening touchdown and after the Lions knot it up, Bortenschlager leads a time-consuming drive ending in another score, this time to the other Terps running back Lorenzo Harrison. At half it is 17-7 Terps and looking good for the visitors.
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The Lions come out with a fury in the second half. Miles Sanders, who was contained in the first 30 minutes, busts out a long touchdown run to start the half and Penn State’s defense starts shutting down the Terps offense, forcing turnovers and punts. Trace McSorley leads the Lions on scoring drives on all their possessions in the second half and turns what was a close game into a blowout.