Grading the Bucks: Week 6--Maryland

Offense: B
Amazing how the woes of the red zone disappear when Mr. Barrett enters at QB.  In all fairness, Cardale did have a nice day, but the indecision is still there.  Also, he was majorly bailed out by Braxton on a simple seam route that was significantly overthrown.  Zeke was his normal awesome self.  I take exception with the O-line play that, in my opinion, is causing some of the issues on offense.  They simply aren't getting the explosive burst that I would like off the ball on run plays. Zeke is getting his, but primarily due to his skill, not the blocking up front. Still wondering why we haven't seen more of the Cardale down field throws.  The toss to Marshall was setup by great pass protection and we need more explosive plays of that variety.

Defense: D
This was concerning.  Running quarterbacks have always caused the Bullet defense to show some chinks in the armor.  The D-line has pass rushing ability, but they seem to have trouble plugging up the running lanes.  Maryland scored 4 TDs: 2 due to explosive plays that arose from defensive breakdowns, 1 that was methodical, and 1 that was in garbage time.  Let downs in the secondary are inexcusable as is the QB run TD.  Hiccups happen, but mistakes of the magnitude we saw against the likes of horrible Maryland can't continue.  Missed tackles reared their ugly head periodically this game as well.

Special Teams: B-
Great coverage on kicks/punts (huge hit by Fada was beautiful) and Johnston punted very well (55 yard net average).  Missed FG and kickoff out of bounds provide a serious downgrade.  This needs to stop.

Coaching: C+
Offense cooks under Barrett, but for some reason, the coaches only let him operate in the red zone.  If you only trust one QB in the red zone, that's your QB.  Cardale was ok in this game, but still far too indecisive to trust as a leader on the field.  Let JT orchestrate the red zone offense in a decisive manner from any location on the field.  Defensively, the front seven need to work on the rush defense and the linebackers need  to attack in a more decisive manner.

Overall: C
21 point victory and it only yields a C? Darn right.  There was no excuse for this sorry Maryland team to score 28 points.  None.  Offensively, there was improvement (wonder why?) but major stepback defensively.  There are still more 'warm up' games, but it's time to stop the 'preseason' mentality and bring everything to the table every game.  We need to start bullying teams and remind everyone why OSU was/is the juggernaut everyone expected.