Inside the Loud House
Fansided

Syracuse Football: Week 2 Maryland Terrapins crystal ball predictions

By Paul A. Esden Jr.

COLLEGE PARK, MD - OCTOBER 27: Anthony McFarland #5 of the Maryland Terrapins runs past Del'Shawn Phillips #3 of the Illinois Fighting Illini during the second half at Capital One Field on October 27, 2018 in College Park, Maryland. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images)
COLLEGE PARK, MD - OCTOBER 27: Anthony McFarland #5 of the Maryland Terrapins runs past Del'Shawn Phillips #3 of the Illinois Fighting Illini during the second half at Capital One Field on October 27, 2018 in College Park, Maryland. (Photo by Will Newton/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 8
Next

Neil Adler, Contributor (1-0)

The Syracuse football squad hits the road for the second-straight occurrence to start the 2019 campaign when the Orange travels to College Park to collide with Big Ten Conference member Maryland.

The ‘Cuse (1-0), ranked No. 22 in both the AP and USA Today coaches polls, began the current stanza with a 24-0 victory at Liberty this past weekend. The Terrapins (1-0), meanwhile, throttled Howard, 79-0, at home in their season opener, which also represented the inaugural contest for new head coach Michael Locksley, who previously served as the offensive coordinator for powerhouse program Alabama.

In crushing the Bison, Maryland racked up more than 600 yards of total offense, while limiting Howard to just 68 yards. Talk about domination. Syracuse absolutely has to clamp down on defense and attempt to contain quarterback Josh Jackson and his offensive attack if it wants to prevail over the Terrapins away from Central New York.

This game will air on ESPN this coming Saturday at 12 p.m. For the moment, odds-makers in Las Vegas are anointing the Orange as a 1.5-point favorite, although ESPN’s Football Power Index says that Maryland has a 66.8 percent chance of succeeding.

In my humble opinion, this affair is pretty much a pick’em. The ‘Cuse might prove the better overall team when all is said and done in the 2019 term, but the Terrapins, on Saturday afternoon, should enjoy a solid advantage as far as the crowd goes. What’s more, Syracuse will host No. 1 Clemson at the Dome the following weekend in a prime-time telecast, and it’s imperative that the Orange doesn’t look ahead to that juicy encounter because Maryland is no cupcake.

I keep going back and forth about which program I believe will win. It’s truly a coin-flip, from my perspective. Ultimately, I think that the Terrapins will sneak by the ‘Cuse, 31-28, due to Maryland’s home-field setting.

Home/Syracuse Football