Looking at this Maryland team you are going to see a ton of injuries and an inconsistent offense with a defense that's on the field for too long. However, down the stretch Randy Edsall changed his game plan to a run first approaching running the ball 5% more and it produced 2 wins in the final 3 games. In fact when Maryland runs for more than 100 yards they are 7-0 this year. Marshall has issues stopping the run and are under sized up front making it difficult to beat teams like Maryland. Marshall faced 3 of the worst running teams this year ranked 121, 123 and 125th in ypc which have skewed their stats, but they still allowed 6 teams to run for 184+ and 5 to average over 5 ypc. Maryland has a very similar offense to what Rice ran and gave Marshall's over rated defense issues in the CUSA championship game. They have a very athletic QB in CJ Brown who is the do all in this game. Brown will run the ball and his RB will have a big game too.
When Maryland is on defense they'll need to get a pass rush because Rakeem Cato is a very under rated QB and decision maker, but when he's under pressure he's just not the same. Maryland is athletic and talented in the front 7 and probably the strength of this team which makes this a very bad match up for them. Maryland is 11th in sack % and their 3-4 defense will give Marshall issues as they are very sound on 3rd down and in the red zone. I think Maryland gets the early lead with their running game and dominate time of possession which will only make it harder for Marshall to move the ball.
