One reason to feel good about Nebraska football vs. Maryland

Nebraska football is nearly a touchdown favorite against Maryland on Saturday, and one reason for that is that the Terps are a good matchup for the Huskers.

Like Michigan was a bad matchup for Nebraska, Maryland is a good one.

The Wolverines were built to take advantage of what Nebraska football doesn’t do well: stop the run. That’s the weakness of the defense, which is allowing 155 yards per game and 4.5 yards per attempt.

Maryland doesn’t run the ball. Freshman quarterback Malik Washington leads the Big Ten in pass attempts. Maryland averages just 3.3 yards per rush and runs 28 times per game.

Washington has three touchdown runs this season. However, he has only 22 rushing yards on 11 attempts, so unlike Bryce Underwood, Aidan Chiles, and Brendan Sorsby, Washington isn’t a true dual-threat.

All that sets up well for Nebraska football. The Huskers allow just 94 passing yards per game to opponents, who have also completed just 50.4 percent of their passes with one touchdown pass.

Some fans want to dismiss that; however, Sorsby has been going off since the Nebraska game with an average of 297 passing yards per game. He threw for 388 against Kansas. That took him 43 attempts.

Sorsby threw 25 times against Nebraska. In his other three games, he didn’t throw over 25 times once, averaging 21.3 attempts for 266 yards. Bryce Underwood threw for 105 yards against Nebraska before throwing for 215 in a half against Wisconsin.

Aidan Chiles threw for 231 yards and four touchdowns against Boston College, as well as 212 yards and three touchdowns against USC. Seven touchdowns and zero interceptions against Power-4 opponents before playing Nebraska football.

The Huskers held him to 9 of 23 passing for 85 yards and two interceptions. They also picked off Sorsby. Washington has had a nice start to his career. The 6-foot-5 freshman has thrown nine touchdowns compared to just two interceptions. But he hasn’t faced a pass defense like Nebraska’s.

Some might want to disqualify what Nebraska has done, but when you dig into the numbers, this pass defense isn’t getting enough credit, and it’s the reason why the Huskers should win this game.

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