The Maryland Terrapins and the Virginia Tech Hokies will square off in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.
The Terrapins are 6-6 and are coming off a 40-16 road win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Junior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa went 21-of-30 for 312 yards and three touchdowns.
The Hokies are 6-6 as well and are coming off a 29-24 road win over the Virginia Cavaliers. Junior quarterback Braxton Burmeister finished 6-of-14 for 141 yards with a touchdown.
Terrapins at Hokies Stats
Looking at the Maryland Terrapins stats
Sophomore wide receiver Rakim Jarrett has played decently well for the Maryland Terrapins as he has 56 catches for 769 yards (13.7 yards per reception) with five touchdowns. In his last game against Rutgers, Jarrett had seven receptions for 111 yards (15.9 yards per catch).
The Maryland Terrapins have been terrible on the defensive side of the field as they are giving up 32.4 points per game. In their previous game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Maryland allowed 16 points on 327 total yards of offense (163 passing, 164 rushing).
The Scarlet Knights went 9-of-15 on third down and converted their only fourth-down try. The Terrapins are allowed 4.8 rushing yards throughout the game.
Looking at the Virginia Tech Hokies stats
Junior running back Raheem Blackshear has been getting his share of touches this season as he has 121 rushing attempts for 714 yards (5.9 yards per carry) with six rushing touchdowns as well as 23 catches for 244 yards (10.6 yards per reception) with a receiving touchdown.
In his last game against Virginia, he finished with 18 carries for 159 yards (9.4 yards per rushing attempt) with a rushing touchdown.
The defense of the Hokies has been doing very well as they are giving up 22.9 points per game. However, they have been struggling a bit as of late as they are allowing 31 points in their last two games.
They were horrific against the pass in their last game against the Virginia Cavaliers as they gave up 419 passing yards, which is 200 more than the defense allows per game this season. The secondary needs to step up, and the pass-rushers need to get to the quarterback if the Hokies want to be successful.
Betting Trends for Maryland Terrapins at Hokies
- Terrapins are 1-4 ATS in their last five games vs Hokies
- Terrapins are 9-29 ATS in their last 38 games following a win
- Terrapins are 2-5 ATS in their last seven games on grass
- Terrapins are 1-7 ATS in their last eight games
Who to Bet Terrapins at Hokies
Virginia Tech is the better program in this game and should be able to win easily as they are the more complete team. The Hokies are listed at +3.5 for this game, and I don’t completely understand why. They have a balanced offensive attack this year and are playing well defensively overall.
That will help, as it seems that starting quarterback Braxton Burmeister (personal) is in jeopardy to miss this game, but he shouldn’t impact their offense enough to make me go off them if Burmeister indeed misses this game.
Go with the Hokies to cover the spread here.