The Terrapin football team has found a way to remain in a lot of games this season.
Saturday’s game against No. 21 Virginia Tech at Byrd Stadium certainly was not one of them.
Despite a Black Out theme meant to spark an upset win, the Terps came out flat. The Hokies charged out to a 24-point halftime lead and cruised to a 36-9 win.
Here’s what else became apparent during the Terps’ fifth consecutive loss:
1. The Terps were due for one of these games—Not since the opener at California had the Terps been thoroughly embarassed. You know, the type of game where the score started getting uncomfortable well before halftime, and you started thinking that the mercy rule in college football might be a good idea. Jamari McCollough’s missed tackle near midfield on Jarrett Boykin’s 61-yard TD catch was probably the height of embarassment as the Hokies took a 24-point lead with more than eight minutes still to play before half, and things didn’t get much better from there. They’ve been playing poorly all season and have been lucky to have a shot into the fourth quarter against mediocre teams such as Virginia, Duke and N.C. State. They ended up losing each of those games, and this one just added to the mounting frustration. Each of the team’s eight losses has been marked by its own defining characteristics. The Hokies, buoyed by its large traveling fan base, just registered an old-fashioned beat down. Coach Ralph Friedgen thought the team had some bad breaks and picked up its energy in the second half, but it didn’t really matter. “I’m just wondering what spell we’re under,” Friedgen said.
2. The injury bug will not leave the Terps alone—Another week, a few more key injuries. Chris Turner, Da’Rel Scott and Nolan Carroll—three of the Terps biggest returning pieces coming into the season—watched from the sidelines. By the end of the game, safety Kenny Tate (high ankle sprain) and punter Travis Baltz (broken hand) joined them. The pair will likely miss the rest of the season, according to Friedgen. Seeing teammates limp off the field and being forced to watch from the sidelines has to take a toll on a team that hasn’t had much to feel good about this season. The mounting injuries make it even harder to get excited about the season’s final two games. It seems a quick and painless end to the season will serve this team just fine.
3. Quarterback Jamarr Robinson didn’t have much to work with—The running game was bad. The offensive line left him vulnerable often and forced him to vacate the pocket. The sophomore took some vicious hits in his first career start. He’s hardly ready for primetime, but he showed some flashes that can give Terp fans a little hope. Robinson ended up running for 129 yards himself on 24 carries even after losing 36 yards on negative plays and sacks. He also relied too much on lobbing the ball down field and hoping his receivers made plays, which except on a few occassions, they didn’t. Early in the fourth quarter, Robinson was thrown down hard for a sack by Virginia Tech linebacker Cam Martin and lost his shoe. That particular play was pretty embarassing. The rest of his effort wasn’t. “Jamarr played his heart out,” wide receiver Torrey Smith said. “He played well enough for us to win. We just had to make more plays for him.”
4. The 1 p.m. Byrd Blackout was not imposing at all.—This is especially true when at least half of the stadium is filled with opposing fans. The band came with the Batman “Dark Knight” theme. It wasn’t even 3 p.m. by that point—It just didn’t work. Several Terp players acknowleded the Terps earned this fate with their poor play throughout the season. But in a game where they needed all the emotion they could muster, Byrd Blackout 2009 fell short. Friday night the Terp faithful brought their A-game with the men’s basketball season-opener at Comcast Center. The football Terps made sure Saturday wasn’t a repeat performance. It should be noted the partnership with the Wounded Warrior Project turned out really nice, even if the rest of the game didn’t. I don’t blame a good portion of the students for skipping out on a wildly uninteresting second half. “I think we were pretty fired up for this game,” linebacker Alex Wujciak said. “With the uniforms and the whole atmosphere that was out there today, I know I was pretty excited and ready to go.”
5. The defensive ills are far from solved.—A rapidly failing offense has taken the harshest spotlight off the defense the last few weeks. And the unit did record a defensive touchdown for the second straight week. But that’s about where the positives end. The defense made Tyrod Taylor, a very average ACC quarterback, look masterful at times. Taylor threw for 200 yards on 12-of-17 passing in the first half, despite missing several very open receivers. He also easily broke containment several times for big plays with his legs. The rush defense is not bad. Highly touted Hokie running back Ryan Williams didn’t do anything too outrageous (He did average 5.5 yards per rush on 23 carries.), but he didn’t have to for the Hokie offense to take it to the Terps. Both starting cornerbacks got burned multiple times and the passing lanes continued to be open against this Terp unit. “That was the back-breaker, I think,” Friedgen said.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Football Team columnist. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.