Following a week one loss against Tennessee, the Bowling Green football team will travel to Maryland on Saturday to take on the Maryland Terrapins. This will be the first time that the teams meet each other on the field.
Maryland will come into the match up off a 50-21 win over Richmond, scoring 20 more points than the Falcons in their season opener.
The Bowling Green offense racked up 557 yards against the Vols behind a career night by quarterback Matt Johnson.
Johnson passed for a career-high 424 yards and completed 27 of his 49 passes, two of which were touchdowns.
The performance earned Johnson MAC East Offensive Player of the Week honors. It was his first game back coming off a season ending hip injury and was against a nationally ranked SEC defense.
His yards thrown were also the second most in the country in week one.
Outside of Johnson and a dangerous Falcon offense, the Bowling Green defense was lacking in the week one showing and will need to improve against Maryland.
Tennessee scored 59 points against the Falcons, a majority of which came in the second half.
“We just need to get better this week. We are searching for perfection all the time. We may never find it, but that’s what we are chasing,” head coach Dino Babers said. “Maryland is a good program that is going to be another challenge this week. Their running game is really good, that running back (Brandon Ross) is probably their best offensive player. On defense they are very good and (William) Likely is not only a dangerous punt returner, but a very good corner.”
Ross rushed for 150 yards in week one and added one touchdown for the Terrapins.
While Bowling Green will look to improve his defense, they will rely again on their offense to defeat a team that gave up 21 points in week one.
The Falcon offense is seeing every offensive starter from last year play again in week 2.
Eight different Falcons were named to trophy watch lists for this season; seven of them play in the offense and the last is one of the best placekickers in the country.
A win against the Terrapins would be the second straight season the Falcons defeated a Power Five Conference team as well as the Big Ten.
The game is scheduled to kick off Saturday at noon in Byrd Stadium.
