For me, one of the more unfortunate aspects of the Saturday's Tallahassee Beatdown was that it forced sports writers to dredge up the equally awful 70-7 drubbing Penn State meted out to the Terps in 1993. I was at that nightmare of a game. If it is any solace, that game was WORSE. It was at home and if I remember correctly, the majority of the scoring occurred before halftime. Put another way, Maryland was outclassed from the outset and never even mounted a fight.
Saturday was different (slightly). The Terps actually held FSU in check for most of the first half before succumbing to the [insert a multitude of things].
That said, Maryland was clearly outclassed and I'm not trying to insinuate otherwise. I fear that the results were not likely to be different if CJ Brown had not been injured. It was as if FSU knew exactly what play we were going to run before the snap. Oh wait. They did.
FSU starting defensive end Mario Edwards said the following after the game: "(We) saw on film that if Maryland's OL squared their feet, it'd be a run. Legs spread, it was a pass."
Well that explains a lot.
Talk about a tell. Sheesh.
I hope the coaching staff is hard at work correcting this little miscue because every other team on our schedule is going to be looking at the OL's feet the rest of the season.
Defensively, I'm actually not as worried as I probably should be. There are two reasons for this:
1. Jameis Winston is an unbelievable talent and a likely Heisman candidate. He has speed, strength, superior athleticism, and passing accuracy. The Terps won't see the likes of him for a decade or more of college football.
2. While I'm disappointed at how they laid down in the second half and quit; it's clear that they did give up. It was a hot day, the offense was going nowhere, and they were on the field forever. I think, if anything, their pride is a bit stung and they will likely dominate in the next game.
Lastly, the majority of the season lay in front us and the Terps can still accomplish the majority of their goals this year. It conceivable (even likely) that they will be 6-1 heading into the home game with Clemson in three weeks. As long as the OL doesn't tip the play and we get CJ Brown back healthy, I believe 9 or 10 wins to be realistic possibilities.
