Week 5 of Penn State’s season offers up its first road game as well as its Big Ten opener as the Nittany Lions (3-0) will face off with Maryland tonight (8 p.m. ET, FS1) on a special edition of Big Ten Friday night football.

It seems year-in and year-out there’s some hidden animosity between these two squads, which has been the case since Maryland refused to shake hands before kickoff with Penn State in James Franklin’s first year as head coach in 2014.

Maryland was able to win that game at Beaver Stadium 20-19, but since then the Nittany Lions have won four straight and have outscored the Terps 104-6 over the past two seasons. Penn State leads the all time series with Maryland 39-2-1.

Maryland (2-1) has already announced a host of festivities to try and make College Park a difficult environment to play in for Penn State later this evening. The theme of the game is a “Black Out,” which then prompted Penn State to implore fans through social media to wear white. So, basically the stadium is going to look like a chess board, because there will be a strong contingent of Nittany Lions fans at the game. Also, the game is an official sellout and Maryland added an additional 1,000 seats behind the student section, because of the high-demand for student tickets for the game. So, one thing is for sure, the atmosphere is going to be great.

Now onto the actual match-up. Maryland started off the season red hot with a 79-0 win over Howard and a 63-20 victory over a then ranked Syracuse team. But in typical Maryland fashion, whenever it has a little national attention or a little momentum, it stumbled with a 20-17 loss to Temple.

Now, to some that might sound like a harsh statement, but unfortunately for Maryland fans it’s just the truth. The most painful thing about the Terps loss to the Owls is that they had two possessions late in the game inside the Owls red zone and turned the ball over on downs twice.

The key match-up in this one in my opinion is the Penn State defense vs. the Maryland offense. The Terps are a run first team, averaging 277 rushing yards per game, which is good for eighth in the country. They will try and get the ball in the hands of sophomore running back Anthony McFarland Jr. as much as possible as the speedster had a breakout freshman season (1,034 yards) and leads the team in rushing with 224 yards this season. Maryland is an explosive offense when it can run the football.

However, Penn State has been very tough against the run this season, holding teams to just 70.7 rushing yards per game. The Nittany Lions held Pitt to just 24 yards rushing two weeks ago. I just don’t think the Terps are going to be able to run the football against Penn State’s front seven.

That then opens up a world of possibilities for the Nittany Lions pass rush. Terps signal caller Josh Jackson, a Virginia Tech transfer has struggled against pressure this season. Against Temple, he threw for just 183 yards and an interception. The Owls came through with four sacks and 10 tackles for a loss against the Maryland offensive line.

Penn State has struggled getting to the quarterback as of late, but that has been more of the Nittany Lions not finishing more than not beating their opponent off the ball. On the season, Penn State’s defensive line has been impressive. Penn State is going for its fifth-consecutive 40-plus sack season, which it’s well on its way, averaging 3.67 sacks per game. Yetur Gross-Matos is off to a good start once again after compiling 20 tackles for a loss last season. He leads the defense with 3.5 sacks, which is tied for eighth in the country. Penn State has totaled double-digit tackles for loss in each of its first three games, ranking fourth in the country.

The bottom line is I think Penn State stifles the Maryland rushing attack, gets pressure on Jackson, forcing turnovers and giving the offense good field position.

Offensively, this is the perfect breakout game opportunity for Penn State sophomore quarterback Sean Clifford. Clifford missed some deep balls to open receivers against Pitt and he will once again have the opportunity to push the ball downfield against a suspect Maryland secondary. Temple quarterback Anthony Russo put together a nice performance against the Terps, passing for 277 yards and three touchdowns. Clifford has more talent on the outside than Russo does, so I expect the first-year starter to make some plays. Look for KJ Hamler, Jahan Dotson, Justin Shorter and Pat Freiermuth to have all have solid games tonight. Maryland is also stubborn against the rush (73.7 yards per game), so Clifford’s role will become even more critical if the Nittany Lions can’t run the ball.

Las Vegas has Penn State as a 6.5-point favorite.

My take is the Penn State defense makes some game-changing plays in this one and that the offense takes advantage. I think Clifford comes up big in the passing game and hits one of the Nittany Lions deep threats in Hamler or Dotson for a few explosive plays.

My pick is: Penn State 38, Maryland 17.