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As Maryland went ahead on Nick Ferrara’s FG with a little over 6 minutes left, I felt a sigh of relief, but only for a brief second.  There was way too much time left for that to be the final score of the game.  It almost had the feel of a basketball game where the team that had the ball last was going to win.  And unfortunately for the Terps, MTSU had the ball last and was able to march down field rather simply with about 1:30 left in the game for the game winning field goal.  Dwight Dasher moved MTSU down the field 73 yards in 8 plays to set up the winning kick as time expired.

The fact that they lost is inexcusable.  I don’t want to hear anything about parity.  You are at home against a non-BCS team from the Sun Belt Conference, you need to win.  We all understand this team is young, and is a “work in progress” with the young line, and new defensive scheme.  Throw in 3 pretty big injuries to starters, Bruce Campbell, Jamari McCollough, and Nolan Carroll, and you understand how they could be in this predicament.  Still, that shouldn’t matter if you do the simple things that good teams do.  So far this season the Terps have not been able to do those things.

Four Terps turnovers led to 16 points for Middle Tennessee.  If you look back on the season, almost every single turnover has led directly to points for the opposition.  All-ACC back Da’Rel Scott showed why he was an all conference back last season with 117 yards on just 13 carries.  The problem though is he fumbled two of those 13 carries, and they set MTSU up with a short field.  Throw in Chris Turner’s interception (though that was all on Davin Meggett), and Jamar Robinson’s fumble, and you see where the problem lies.  The Terps are just not good enough to win games where they make these mistakes.

Though their were only 4 penalties against Maryland this game, it is the timing and the type that kills the Terps.  A false start on the Center Phil Costa.  Really, the one player on the field where that should never happen.  That is the third penalty involved with the snap this season.  It all comes down to bad mistakes, that well coached and prepared teams just don’t make.  I don’t think any of us were expecting this to be a cake walk, or to truly contend for the Atlantic Division, but you have to expect to beat MTSU at home. 

Despite all the mistakes there were some bright spots for the Terps.  Had they some how pulled out this win, this article would have touched on some reasons to be optimistic going forward.  Cameron Chism stepped in for Carroll and had two interceptions.  The defense did have 3 take-away’s.  The defense was in the backfield a lot more this game.  At times, they even did a pretty good job of containing a dual threat QB (at times being the key word).  On the offensive side they were able to protect Chris Turner enough to take some shots down field.  Torrey Smith is emerging as the star we all hoped he would.  So while this game probably set the Terps program back light years, there were still some positives to come out of the game. 

Here is what truly concerns me going forward.  And I am not referring to the rest of the ’09 season.  While the Terps are young overall as a program, they are as experienced as they ever have been at Quarterback under Ralph Friedgen.  You always here about how tough it is to come in and learn the playbook and system.  Here we are with a QB that has been in the system 5 years, and has started for most of three of those years.  It is a coaches dream.  Yet the Terps are still not able to take advantage of it.  I can already hear the press conferences next year:  “we are very inexperienced at QB, and have to be very conservative on offense”.  I am usually ever the optimist, but as I am getting older I think I am becoming more of a realist, and I am not sure how bright the future is.   With all of that said, I did see some positives today.  So with the senior QB, All-ACC running back, and the explosive WR, this Terps team is going to pull out a win that none of us really expect.  The key to the season will be to win some games at home, and stop the mistakes, and somehow get to six wins.  The margin is too small to play like this and win.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Maryland Terps Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.