Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

I will admit.  I did not see that coming.  I will also admit, that I didn’t really think we were capable of doing that to anyone not named Morgan State.  The Terps played turnover free football, and defeated Wake Forest 62-14 on Homecoming.  The 62 points was the most Maryland has scored against any ACC opponent.  To put that in perspective, the Men’s Basketball team had 4 games where they scored lower than 62 points last season.  What do we get from that game?  I am not sure it tells us anything about Maryland, but Wake was overmatched yesterday.  Even if it was against a young Wake Team looking to make its own identity, that was important for the Terps to show that they had that in them.   In terms of a material possession, the Terps will be bowling over the holidays this year.  A feat we all would have considered pretty successful after last season.

More on the bowls.  I am not sure I am ready to buy into this yet, but as my more optimistic and perhaps over served friends, kept reminding me yesterday when I kept saying they haven’t beaten anyone yet, Maryland does indeed control their own destiny.  Maryland could wind up in a bowl that requires short Metro ride to RFK Stadium, a car trip to Charlotte, or perhaps the Jewel of the ACC Bowl tie ins, a plane ride to South Beach Miami!  That’s right Terp fans, it is November (or will be tomorrow) and Maryland’s hopes of an ACC title are in their own hands.   You really can’t ask for more than that.  After yesterday’s inexplicable BC win over Clemson, and UVA win over Miami, things have gotten a lot more interesting for the Terps in the Atlantic Division.  You can look at it two ways.  First, Maryland does indeed control it’s own destiny, and the biggest games are in Byrd.  Secondly, Maryland has only one win (Navy) against a 1A team with a winning record.  Personally, I am going to let the ideas surrounding my first thought bounce around in my head until we get ready to kick off against Miami, who may or may not have the services of Jacory Harris next weekend.

I do want to wrap up with a couple of quick thoughts from yesterdays game.

• The special teams units are really shining this year.  Aside from the two blocked punts, I want to point out the play of Laquan Williams on kick and punt coverages.  He seems he is always the first or second guy down the field, and more often that not, he makes the tackle, or at least steers the man with ball to the next defender.
• Danny O’Brien seems to be pretty capable.  I will admit, I kind of was pulling for Jamarr Robinson this season.  There is no question in my mind now that O’Brien will be the man going forward.  He makes good decisions, and just seems to have a knack for the offense.  While the play where he escaped the sack and chucked it down field to Torrey Smith was a bit lucky, that could very easily have been a sack, and he made a big play out of it.
• Congrats to Da’Rel Scott for becoming just the 10th Terp to rush for 2000 yards in his career.  The last two years haven’t been as productive as we would have liked, but from time to time he has the ability to break a long one, but I had visions of him churning out nearly 100 yard games week after week.  Part of it is obviously the line play, but still, I was expecting big things this year.

One last plug for us here at Turtledroppings.  My take on the ACC’s most underrated player is here on the ACC.com‘s Blogger Round Table Discussion.

Happy Halloween to everyone, and check back soon as we should know the kickoff time for the Miami game any minute now.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 31st, 2010 at 11:13 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.