Maryland's Comeback Falls Short, West Virginia Wins 31-17
by Ben Broman on Sep 18, 2010 3:27 PM EDT
in Football
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PrintHere's the play-by-play for Maryland's opening drive against West Virginia: incompletion, delay of game, loss of one, time-out, false start, delay of game, delay of game, ten-yard completion, punt. West Virginia scored on the preceding drive and on the following one. The rest of the half was worse.
That tells you just about everything you need to know about Maryland's 31-17 loss in Morgantown. Maryland came alive in the second half for a valiant comeback that consisted of two long Torrey Smith TDs, but it was ultimately too little and too late after that terrible of a first stanza. The Terps will go to 2-1 on the season, which, at the beginning of the season, was a rather optimistic projection.
There's really not much more to say about it. Jamarr Robinson terribly inept in the first half - he couldn't pass, couldn't run, and looked continually flustered in the pocket. Danny O'Brien, who was the object of the continuous QB discussion over the past week, supposedly re-injured his ankle before the game. He played just one play, and he was sacked and appeared to re-injure his ankle.
Out of nowhere, Robinson came back out in the second half and looked competent. He showcased a gun of an arm and looked a little more composed. Sure, for the most part it was just two bombs to Torrey Smith, but it's better than nothing. He still has his issues, but first reaction has me a little more confident in him being an ACC-level QB.
Outside of two forced fumbles deep in their own territory, the defense looked like West Virginia's punching bags in the first half. Geno Smith turned out an incredible performance and threw 4 TD passes; Tavon Austin killed his hometown team multiple times; Noel Devine was, well, Noel Devine. Tackling was poor and WVU dominated the line of scrimmage. Again, they looked better in the second half, but it just wasn't enough.
Ultimately, it has to go back to the coaching staff. The players looked woefully under-prepared and over-matched. Play-calling was questionable throughout the game. It was just unacceptable on every level, even if it got better on in the second half, and completely dissolved all the good-will that was built up by the Navy and Morgan State wins. To me, the status of all the coaches has rest to preseason levels, and that's not good for them.
Grades coming tomorrow.
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WVU was just better
The Terps came out completely flat in the first half. A young team go intimidated…and then the o-line got overwhelmed.
Only the DL and OL are mostly young and they were intimidated. Plus we made it worse for them by digging our own hole on that first series.
The rest of the team has experience. We just look like we’re reacting rather than trying to take it to the opposition. Don Brown’s blitzing defense did have some success in the second half but where we are offensively is a mystery to me. I’m not sure what Franklin is trying to do.
I actually thought the blitzes were pretty misguided
There were multiple third and long occasions where we’d blitz seven and leave Wujciak on a wide receiver, and we got burnt. Just seemed a strange strategy to me, especially because it never stopped.
I actually can't complain too much about the Blitz D
When you’re down by that many at the half, you have to take risks to get yourself back into the game, even if it means you might get burned.
by machphantom on Sep 19, 2010 12:37 AM EDT up reply actions
I agree that were in the first half
Brown’s defense can’t be reactive and it was in that half. They were getting to Smith in the second half.
As to Wujciak, I didn’t think he should have been in here for any of the long yardage downs. They replaced him with Dexter on some of those downs and even Dexter had trouble covering Divine.
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