Maryland-Stanford Foster Farms Bowl Preview

Maryland is set to take on the Stanford Cardinal tonight at 10pm EST in the Foster Farms Bowl in a defacto home game for Stanford in Santa Clara, CA.  This was previously the Emerald Bowl and the Fight Hunger Bowl for those who are attempting to figure out what bowl it transformed from as sponsors seem to continually change.

How to Watch:

Time: 10:00pm EST

Where: Santa Clara, CA @ Levi's Stadium

TV: ESPN

What you need to know:

For starters, Stanford is probably most similar to Penn State in terms of style of play with the exception that they have a much better offensive line led by Andrus Peat at LT.  Under David Shaw this year, the Cardinal seemed to have regressed from their winning ways of the past two seasons, putting up a 7-5 record behind a lackluster offense but quite good defense.  The offense doesn't really do one thing well, and not really anyone stands out.  Senior QB Kevin Hogan has regressed this season with the exception of the last two games where he threw for a combined 31 of 39 passes and ran for close to 100 yards.  He is a threat on the ground, but won't rush to the levels of CJ Brown.  Stanford deploys a running back by committee approach with no rusher averaging more than 60 yards on the ground.  Stanford's leading receiver, Ty Montgomery, is a big home run threat but has been ruled out of the game so the Terps avoid having to cover one of the nation's leading receivers.

Stanford's defense is probably the polar opposite of their offense.  Led by senior Henry Anderson on the line, Stanford's defense is ranked second in the country in points against, allowing only 16 per contest.  Anderson has 13.5 TFL on the year to go along with 7 sacks, so the Terps will need to find a way to contain him if they want to have time to get the ball out.  Stanford's secondary is no slack either as they have not allowed more than 300 yards through the air at all this season, even against big stat foes such as Oregon.

Key Matchups:

Andrus Peat vs. Andre Monroe: Peat is one of the countries best offensive lineman and Monroe is Maryland's sack leader.  Getting pressure on Hogan will be key, and Monroe will need to find a way to win in order to help provide it.  Monroe already got the better of his matchup with Brandon Scherff earlier in the season and I would expect him to try similar things in order to get around Peat.

CJ Brown vs. Stanford secondary: Brown will need to get rolling early if the Terps are going to have a chance.  Stanford has not allowed over 300 yards through the air all season, and they played Oregon and Washington State.  CJ will need to get the ball into the hands of Stefon Diggs and Deon Long early and often if the Terps are going to stay in this.  It will help if he can get some solid zone read going to keep the defense on their heals.

Prediction:

Maryland will need to keep Stanford under 20 if they stand a chance.  Vegas has the line at Stanford (-13) thinking that Maryland probably doesn't stand a chance on offense.  I'm going with Stanford - 24 - 13 over MD.  I'm not sure that Maryland has the OL to give CJ a chance, or that CJ can perform well against a very good defense.