Ohio State Football: Way too early 2021 game predictions

For their second road trip of the season, Ohio State will travel to New Jersey to take on Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights had a surprise season under Greg Schiano in his first season back in Piscataway. Schiano knows how to win at Rutgers and he turned the Scarlet Knights into a tougher team in 2020. Rutgers was not the team that everyone looked forward to playing and that actually is an improvement from where they were.

While Rutgers did improve, they still have a long ways to go and should not be in this game long against Ohio State. Expect another big Buckeyes victory.

Final Score: Ohio State 52, Rutgers 14 (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten)

Ohio State will return home to face off against another Big Ten East foe in Maryland, who looked like they took some steps forward in Mike Locksley’s second season. Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was a nice improvement at the quarterback position for the Terps in 2020 and Maryland had a pretty good offense for much of the season.

The problems for Maryland last season came on the defensive side of the ball and they will need to show big improvements on that side of the ball if they hope to possibly challenge for a bowl game this season.

I think that Maryland is heading in a good direction under Locksley, especially in recruiting, but it is a big ask to hang around with an elite team like Ohio State on the road. Maryland could score some points here and hang around for a little bit, but Ohio State pulls away.

Final Score: Ohio State 40, Maryland 23 (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten)