Ugh.
That was the only word that can be used to describe what happened on Saturday. After coming out of the gate moving the ball at will against a clearly over matched defense, State looked well on its way to cruising into an easy blow out. Why, it was 14-0 after only two drives as the first quarter was ending. “Huzzah, pass that bottle around, it’s going to be a grand old time,” thought Wolfpack fans. “There’s still 1:45 left in the first quarter, my god, it could end up being 35-0 by half time.”
It would be the last State touchdown until the 2:39 mark in the 4th quarter.
There were signs even in the 1st quarter that things could very easily turn. Maryland moved the ball with ease through the air, only to be stymied on the ground, before being forced to punt. On their second drive of the game, a review that could have gone either way nullified a large gain and first down on an O’Brien pass to a wide open Torrey Smith, necessitating a punt.
As the game wore on, Coach Ralph Friedgen of Maryland largely abandoned the run and stuck with Danny O’Brien’s brilliant passing, and it would have taken millions of dollars in surreptitious bribes to referees in order to nullify Torrey Smith. Not only did Maryland destroy State’s delusions of grandeur, they also ensured an ACC Freshman of the Year award for their stand out quarterback out of East Forsyth High School.
The end result was a Maryland stat line that probably made balance fetishists want to vomit; Danny O’Brien finished 4 touchdowns on 33 completions out of 47 attempts for a whopping 417 yards. The team finished with -9 yards on 20 rushes. And a 7 point win. In the words of Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson, “Screw balance, I just want to win.”
So what went wrong for State exactly? More importantly, was this a choke?
Well, let us first define a choke. A choke is when a superior team loses a game against a clearly inferior opponent in a game it has to win, usually by bone headed or otherwise mistake prone play, but always by playing in a way they have not played in the games leading up to it. Does State fit that definition?
Well let’s see. It wasn’t the first time an offense had its way with the Wolfpack’s over matched secondary. Just one week ago this team gave up over 400 yards to TJ Yates, and Dominique Davis, and made Christian Ponder look like a Heisman candidate. State’s defense even did better against the run than they had against quite a few teams this year, even as they were forced to shift into nickel and dime coverage in order to deal with the onslaught through the air.
“But,” you dear reader may ask, “what about the offense? Surely it choked?”
Did it? In what way was this State performance demonstrably different that in wins against FSU, UNC and Wake, or in the loss to Clemson? State did not really try to run the ball, had little success when it did, and only really showed up for half the game, or less, in UNC and Maryland’s case. And once again, State waited and waited for a break, a fluke bit of luck to save them. This time, it wasn’t enough.
The real major difference between this game and the game last week in Chapel Hill was that rather than playing a team with a penchant for quitting when things turn bad and for turnovers, State found a team in Maryland that steadfastly refused to beat itself, and forced State to step up.
The onside recovery with 2:39 to play looked to be that one bit of wild luck State needed to get back into the game. Down 38-17 with 2:43 to go on 4th and goal, State scored on a Russell Wilson run, and after a 15 yard penalty against Maryland assessed on the kickoff, plus the onside recovery, the game’s momentum appeared to have swung wildly, as it so often has this season, towards State. Another quick touchdown with 1:22 to go suddenly left State with 3 timeouts and a chance to win this thing.
So here it was, State with 3 time outs and a chance to get the ball back if they just kept stuffing the run. Maryland couldn’t run all day, but basically had to with 1:22 to go. State got it’s three and out, and stopped Maryland cold on 4th down.
It is a shame the referees botched that call so badly, giving Maryland a spot that sent ESPN’s announce team into near-hysterics as they struggled to figure out how Ron Cherry’s crew could be so thick as to give Maryland a first down on a play that was so very clearly stopped for a loss, if anything.
It is a shame because instead of congratulating Maryland on a great win against a good opponent and an 8-4 regular season, Wolfpack fans are going to be screaming about getting screwed.
It is a shame because instead of having to answer questions about why his team again played like complete garbage for half a game, Coach O’Brien is off the hook because, “The refs screwed us.”
It is a shame because the referees decision, which was ultimately likely inconsequential seeing as State had only :38 to play and would have most likely not been able to go 60 some odd yards in that time with no time outs, has now become the focal point of the game, rather than the focus being on the State players that played badly and the Maryland player that played well.
It is ignorant and idiotic to blame a call for State losing that game. It is wrong to blame it on a defense that has been overmatched all season and has relied on Jon Tenuta’s wild blitz packages to cover up a world of awful in the secondary all season. The blame falls squarely on an offense that decided to show up too late to affect the outcome.
State should have never been in a position for referees to have a chance to decide this game with 0:38 to go. Maryland, no matter how nice a story they have been had no business holding State’s offense to 17 points through 3 quarters. The defense did as good a job as can be expected from them given their talent. They got to O’Brien; they stopped the run. Would have been nice to see the Russell Wilson from the first quarter and the last 3 minutes show up for the middle of the game, but I guess the Man for All Seasons isn’t exactly a Man for the Whole Game.
So State is looking at either a Citrus Bowl game in Orlando or a long grueling trip to Charlotte for the Meineke Car Care Bowl. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that State would have 8 wins and would finish tied for 3rd place in the conference, I’d jump for joy. But having seen how close State came to something special only to see them piss it away, you cannot help but feel a crushing sense of disappointment.
See you in Charlotte, Wolfpack. If you lose to a Big East team, I’m setting the stadium on fire.
