Foster Farms Bowl

Foster Farms Bowl , Dec. 30
Maryland vs. Stanford

– Maryland’s first season in the Big Ten was a relative success, even if it was inconsistent. The offense struggled with no ground game and little explosion, and the defense was nothing special, but the Terps still managed to get to seven wins by winning most of the games they were supposed to with the exception a late collapse against Rutgers. How inconsistent have they been? They’ve gone win-loss-win-loss over the last eight games, but on the plus side, the last game in the pattern was an L.

– A far, far cry from the BCS game-playing, Pac-12-winning version of the past few seasons, Stanford never quite found its groove and never really looked the part from the start. The offense stalled to a dead stop at times in the middle of the season, and it didn’t start to perk up until late with a blowout win over California and a Pac-12-killing thumping of UCLA. The defense is still the Stanford defense, allowing fewer than 300 yards and just 16 points per game, but can the offense perk up? Can this be a catalyst to a potentially strong 2015? It gets a virtual home game, and it needs to take advantage.

First Reaction: Bleecccchhhhh. Maryland’s offense doesn’t work against decent defenses, and Stanford shows up for bowl games. Being in Santa Clara won’t matter much for a Cardinal fan base that isn’t going to travel next door to fill the place up, but it’ll still be a home field advantage. David Shaw and his Stanford D will put the clamps down from the start.
First Prediction: Stanford 31 … Maryland 10