Notre Dame Runs Over Maryland at FedEx Field, 45-21
by Ben Broman on Nov 12, 2011 11:07 PM EST
in Football
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PrintNotre Dame running backs Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood combined for 235 yards and three touchdowns, Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees threw for another two TDs, and the Fighting Irish coasted to an easy 45-21 win over the Maryland Terrapins at FedEx Field.
It was the sixth straight loss for the Terps, and they drop to 2-8 in Randy Edsall's inaugural season. They haven't won a game since the first day of October. Today's performance won't do much to stay the increasing tide of discontent rippling through the fan base.
Maryland was out-gained 508 to 364 on the day, and managed only 48 yards on 17 plays in the lopsided first quarter. The offense was lackluster, especially early, but the defense was little better: they were consistently gashed on third downs and in the running game - the standout play that combines both being, of course, a 19-yard run on a draw by Gray to convert a third-and-17 in the third quarter. Of course, that drive ended in a touchdown.
In fact, it's the fourth-straight lopsided loss the program has had (two of those came against BC and Virginia). I guess there may be, as Edsall says, some progress ... somewhere ... but it certainly hasn't manifested itself on the field anytime recently. Past a few individual bright spots, it's difficult to find any measure of positivity from this game, either.
I hate to be the guy that says this, but hey, at least basketball starts literally tomorrow. Now, onto the recap:
In what has quickly become a Saturday tradition for Maryland, the Terrapins started slow: they had a three-and-out to begin the game, and the Fighting Irish promptly marched 67 yards down the field on their first drive and punched in a 1-yard Gray touchdown run. That just about set the tone for the evening.
Maryland punted on their next four possessions, and Notre Dame would have a 17-0 lead before the Terps were able to mount a drive. In fairness, they did finally mount said drive, going 61 yards and topping it off with a 13-yard Quintin McCree touchdown reception on a WR middle screen to cut the lead to 10.
And as you might expect, it was just one big downhill slide from there. Notre Dame picked up two short-yardage TDs on their next two drives from Gray and Wood, respectively. Then Danny O'Brien, on Maryland's first drive of the second half, overthrew Kevin Dorsey on a wide receiver screen and was picked off by Lo Brown, who returned it 57 yards for a pick-six touchdown, giving the Irish a 38-7 lead. O'Brien had to leave the game a few plays later with an elbow injury midway through the third quarter.
C.J. Brown came in the game and, to his credit, led a touchdown drive late in third quarter and another late in the fourth. I'm pretty sure, though, that that's the very definition of too-little and too-late.
The sad stat of the day has to be the Irish putting up over 200 yards of rushing on Maryland. If you're wondering, they're the seventh team to do so all year and - if you can handle this - the sixth straight. That has to be some kind of record. To the defense's credit, they did get three sacks on Notre Dame's OL - a group that had allowed only five sacks all season before this game. So at least there's that, as little as it may be.
Notre Dame was the more talented than Maryland, pretty easily. An upset would've been a pretty significant surprise. But I have a difficult time believing that the Terrapins were that much worse. This game wasn't as close as the score, and the score looks pretty damning as it is. Again, I suppose Edsall could be right in saying that there's some progress somewhere out there, but to my untrained eye, it's pretty tough to see.
As always, we'll have more soon in the Stock Report and Helmet Stickers, touching on the reemergence of D.J. Adams (no, really), the strong starting debut from A.J. Hendy, and the struggles of ... well, just about everyone else. See you right back here tomorrow.
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Danny broke his arm.
No more QB controversy this season.
I no longer like him as a starting QB
But against that defense he should’ve been out there by the second quarter at least. They were susceptible to get beaten by the zone-read, and they did.
what a craptastic night
Basically everyome I wanted to win in any sport lost, DOB out for the season AND Edsall’s still employed (couldn’t resist the gratuitous shot, sorry Edsall supporters)! FML.
by LeftCoastTerp on Nov 13, 2011 12:56 AM EST via iPhone app reply actions
Whatever
Basketball season starts SUNDAY LETS GOOOO. Nick Faust triple double first game, heard it hear first
Losing is going to happen in football, as in all sports.
Yet, the effort being given by a majority of the team is very disheartening. I’m not going to try and psychoanalyze the program; not going to give an opinion on what’s going on in the locker room; not going to put words in the mouth of the players on how they feel about Edsall or the staff. There is this little thing called PRIDE, and our football team just doesn’t have it this year. Is that a reflection of their coach, or do our boys just really not give a damn? I really don’t know.
I’m only about 2.5 hours from Wake and really would like to go see the boys play there next Saturday since I don’t get to see them but maybe once every two years (when they come to Clemson). Question is: will it be worth the drive?
Not an Edsall Apologist, but considering...
the talent that left the team, and not having anyone of the same level to replace those guys is not the current coaching staff’s fault. Torrey Smith and LaQuan Williams = Ravens. Adrian Moten = Colts. Will Yeatman = Dolphins. DaRel Scott = Giants. Alex Wujciak, Adrian Cannon and Travis Baltz all hung with pro teams for a while. Paul Pinegar was an All-ACC lineman his senior year.That’s 9 seniors playing at a pro level or close to it.
I have a hard time looking at anyone on the current roster and thinking if they’ll even be invited to a pro camp. Meggett, maybe? He’s got a lot of heart. Hartsfield? Possibly. Tate? How can you tell based on playing time (and playing out of position)?
They’ve brought in some solid freshmen and that bodes well for the future, but this current crop of seniors, as a whole, is nowhere close to what we lost.
Let’s write this one off as a teardown and rebuild, and continue to support the team for the effort they put in at practice and on game days. Next year will be better, for sure.
At least basketball season is finally here!
Quote from Joe Theismann in the Post this morning:
‘Maryland needs to find a couple of guys like that—a couple guys that people fear. Right now, nobody fears anybody on the Maryland team.’
Hey Mr. Broman...
We sure do see a lot of Terps being suspended for team rules infractions. Other than the well-publicized earring bans, 11 pm curfew and wearing of headgear indoors, what are some of the other rules that Coach Edsall has imposed on the players? I’m just wondering – what rules are so egregious to some of these players that they don’t want to play for the new coach.
First of all basketball; we could well lose tonights game and will be lucky to be 5-5 by the time Howard and Len are available. So I would not get too excited about bball. As for fball; our lack of run defense clearly starts in the middle where the absence of Kerr ( I guess his academic failure is Edsall fault) and Anderson’s season long injury hugh factors. Vellano is real good but undersized, Monroe is a young version of Vellano. Francis was more motivated as freshman than he is today and Kilgo is obviously not there yet. The other big concern on defense is CB; you need to have kids with 4.4 or better speed out there and we don’t have them. The only players we have that are close to the mold is Chism, maybe Rowson (LB??) and Dorleant (RS ACL). Darby would probably start next year if we can get him (i.e like the kid at UVA ). Lack of talent not lack of effort is what I saw on the field last night. Not enough talent and too many key injuries to have any real chance to be succesfull right now.
If Maryland is 5-5 after the first 10 games of the season...
It means that we lost to UNC-Wilmington and another school along with Alabama, Illinois, and Notre Dame. Based on how miserable things looked in the spring, I actually think I can live with 5-5 and not be horrified.
by Tezcatlipoca on Nov 13, 2011 10:24 AM EST up reply actions
Show me something
Anything. Week after week, and there’s nothing to point to, nothing to build upon, just resignation to losing and complacency in defeat. This team is better than that.
The coaches and players need to stop reading what’s being written about them, quit watching Sportscenter, and come together as a unit. I don’t want to read any more tweets from the coach about how the team gets better with every snap in practice, or hear any more about players who don’t want to take off their hats or pull up their pants.
Two games remain on this year’s schedule. Show me something, anything.
It's gonna take a long time to turn the ship around,
several years at least. Talented prospects are unlikely to become Terps when they see
a long history of mediocre teams. This season has revealed just how poorly RF recruited.
No
Can’t let that one go by without a response.
Regardless of how you feel about Edsall, you can NOT blame the Fridge for the current state of the program. I appreciated the Fridge for what he was, then I was glad to see him go. However, this season is not about Fridge. He would not be 2-8, he would not get blown out by Temple, BC, and Virginia at home. This nightmare belongs to Edsall, not Fridge.
Really?
You don’t blame the guy who recruited EVERY ONE of the players, save Pickett?
When you're rich you don't write checks - Randy Moss
by s.r.genovese on Nov 13, 2011 3:12 PM EST up reply actions
Really?
The same players went 9-4 last year, played hard and were prepared for games. They didn’t get destroyed by temple at home or fall behind by double digits in the first few minutes every week. This team is poorly coached, first and foremost. You really can’t see that?
I can see the fact that
the 9-4 team lost a lot of starters to the NFL and graduation and Fridge clearly did a terrible job of building depth on this team.
This isn’t the same team as last years team (oh and an easy schedule helped a lot in going 9-4).
When you're rich you don't write checks - Randy Moss
by s.r.genovese on Nov 13, 2011 6:43 PM EST up reply actions
Incorrect
These are not the same players. Between graduations, NFL drafts, players trasnferring, getting injured, suspended, etc these are not the same players that went 9-4 on a weaker schedule last year.
by kevinANGERson on Nov 14, 2011 2:14 PM EST up reply actions
It will be a long haul
Has anyone seen any glowing reports about the 2012 recruiting class? All I’ve seen is that, to date, it’s one of the worst in the ACC.
This year, for a variety of reasons, a lot of true freshmen have played. This will make them better next year as sophomores than had they redshirted this year. At same time, the squad will have a “deficit” of redshirts moving into the playing squad in 2012.
The ongoing practice in major college ball is to redshirt incoming freshman. UMd is now off track in this sequencing. Will the incoming class of 2012 be put back on the developmental track by being redshirted? This seems necessary in the long-term of things, but it will leave the squad short of the numbers it would have had without this year’s use of so many true freshman.
Maybe I haven’t written this clearly, but the bottom line is that there is a developmental gap in College Park.
by Runningcloud on Nov 13, 2011 11:21 AM EST up reply actions
I was there last night, and it sucked. 80% ND fans and they totally dominated the atmosphere, even before kickoff. The UMD fans were all walking around with their heads down because they knew an ass kicking was coming, and they were right.
The Edsall haters can try and pin it all on the coach, the apologists can try and pin it on the seniors that left, but to go from a 9 win team to this mess is startling. There’s more afoot here than just losing a few receivers.
Basketball starts today
And that might be just as ugly as our football season.
"It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s easier to lie without them." -Fred Mosteller
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