Virginia Tops Terps In Rain, 20-9

In the dictionary, under the definition of ugly it should say "See: Maryland-Virginia game." Actually, that might be too ugly to be an example: "hideous" might be more proper.

Throughout the rain, the cold, the sacks, the fumbles, and the turnovers, neither team got close to separating themself until the very end, and after Nick Ferrara missed two FGs and Virginia DT Nate Collins intercepted a pass at the line of scrimmage and returned it for a TD, Virginia topped the Terps, 20-9.

Unfortunately, this loss probably all but eliminates Maryland from bowl contention, as they'd have to win another four of their five remaining games, something that's not really rational to expect them to be able to do. Remember, this team lost to Middle Tennessee State. Really, though, didn't we kind of expect that?

Other than that, it didn't tell us too much about Maryland. The conditions of the game affect so much that it's difficult to take the lessons normally learned from these types of games and improve on them. Kind of a lose-lose situation.

I guess that's not entirely true. We did learn that the running backs still have serious problems regarding fumbling, and we also learned that Caleb Porzel should be, if not starting, receiving serious carries.

We also learned that either Chris Turner or James Franklin has a grudge against Torrey Smith, Maryland's best player by far, who was all but shunned from the passing attack. I need to go to my toes to count the number of times he had one-on-one coverage and wasn't even looked at.

Oh, and lastly, I think we learned that Ralph Friedgen's seat will be plenty hot.

Other than that, we didn't get that much out of it.

You know the schedule: grades tomorrow, plus some minor analysis later (much later) tonight.