Maryland 6-6 (3-5), 5th Atlantic Coast - Atlantic
vs
Oregon State 8-4 (6-3), 3rd Pacific-10

December 28, 8:30pm, ESPN

Maryland comes into the Emerald Bowl losers of 4 of their last 6 games, but one of their wins came against a very good Boston College team. Oregon State on the other hand comes into this game winning 6 of their last 7 games, including wins over California and Oregon. Their only loss in that time frame was to USC. Under head coach Mike Riley, the Beavers are 3-0 in bowl games and Maryland has also win its last 3 bowl games.

Coach Friedgen is hoping his team steps up like they did against Boston College and Rutgers because they will have to going up against the nation’s #2 rushing defense. The Terps strength is their running game behind Keon Lattimore and Lance Ball. Lattimore and Ball have combined for over 1500 yards and 25 touchdowns. Their QB situation is a little shaky however. Chris Turner won the job over Jordan Steffy in-season and has thrown for 1753 yards with only 5 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He will need to have a career day since they are going to need to have a balanced attack against the Beavers. On defense, the Terps are 45th against the run and 47th against the pass, a solid defense nonetheless. Erin Henderson leads the defense with 11 tackles per game.

The Beavers also rely on a ground game to control the clock and score on offense. Yvenson Bernard is the leading rusher with over 1000 yards and 12 touchdowns, but James Rodgers has over 400 yards and an impressive 11 yards per carry backing him up. Oregon State has been having trouble hanging onto the ball when they pass. Quarterback Sean Canfield has thrown 14 interceptions to only 8 touchdown passes. On defense the Beavers not only rank 2nd in rush defense, but they rank 3rd in sacks per game with 3.5 and 6th in tackles for losses. In a conference that is know for their offense, the Beavers have put up some impressive defensive numbers.

Looking at these two teams side by side, I would have to give Maryland the slight edge on offense because they have a better rushing game and even though their quarterback is not that effective, he doesn’t turn the ball over as much as Canfield. Defensively Maryland is average while Oregon State is solid against the run and below average against the pass. Given that Maryland can’t throw well and is average on the rushing offense, I’ll give the overall edge to Oregon State. The Beavers will win this game by a FG or two. Oregon State 24 Maryland 18

Picking Maryland to Win (28%)
ITB Ron Juckett, Sportsbone TV, Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks, Brian Isaacson, Brant Chruscial, Timmy B, Dan Schoonover, Cyril Tircuit, Mrs Corn Nation

Picking Oregon State to Win (72%)
ITB Brian Sakowski, Pitch Right, MizzouRAH, The Enlightened Spartan, Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, Kansas It’s Business Time, ITB Charlie Swager, The LSC Scoop, Corn Nation, MidWest Coast Bias, Football Frontier, Rizzo Sports, Logan Jaffe, Jeff Brancolini, Lou Nemec, Matt Kieta, Richard Dixon, Pete Boivin, Jason Stiver, Greg Gowins, Rodney Polston, Sunny Verma, Lorena The Dodgerchick