I'm not so sure the conservative game plan of the last two games has been designed to try to fool Ohio State into thinking they are just going to be an ultra conservative team now. Probably more like "we can be very conservative and still win these two games", and it almost bit them against Maryland.
I mean I definitely agree that the general vision of how they want to run the game comes from Harbaugh during the week, but when they're in the stadium and the game is actually happening, Sherrone can't exactly phone a friend back at the hotel and ask whether they should go for it on 4th and 2 from the Ohio State 40 or not. Some of those calls have to come from him in the moment, and it seems like, at least against 2 overmatched opponents, he is more likely to be conservative than to gamble. I'd like to see how he handles it when forced into a position where he basically HAS to roll the dice, he just hasn't been challenged into that yet.
It will be interesting to see how the gameplan differs for Ohio State, that's for sure.