Maryland Football Barometer After FIU

When I was wrapping up Maryland’s win over Howard last week, I mentioned their next match against FIU this would be an interesting “barometer game” for the Terps. We could apply the bulletproof Transitive Property to the results in comparison to Big Ten East foe Indiana’s experience against Panthers.

The Transitive Property will definitely be used in this post, but what struck me is I don’t think I used the term “barometer” correctly. Or, if I did, I don’t really think I understood what I was saying. And I often say things on the podcast to the effect of “this will be a good barometer of where the Terps are.” It’s entirely possible I’ve been blabbering on the internet for years, repeatedly saying words that don’t mean anything. What a terrifying prospect.  

(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)

Let’s investigate.

For those of us who are less informed out there (Thank God for Google), a barometer, basically measures air pressure. I think I knew that. So I suppose I have been using it correctly. Rhetorically speaking, I could use any random unit of measurement to describe the performance of a football. I just happened to be using air pressure for some reason? Ok.

But if I were to read a barometer, what would be considered a “favorable” air pressure?

I consulted with a five-year-old Yahoo Answers post deemed “Best Answer” to the question: “Please can someone explain me high and low pressure?” The source claimed to be a meteorologist for the military and that’s good enough for me. His key point:

HIGH AIR PRESSURE:
Walk around in the open, saying, “Hi!” to all your neighbors

LOW AIR PRESSURE:
You want to be BELOW an umbrella.

Big concepts we’re tackling over here at Baltimore Sports and Life.

Now that we’ve established I haven’t been throwing completely empty phrases around, let’s bring it back around to Maryland: If we were measuring the performance of the football team in barometric pressure, we’d be looking for a high number. High pressure means warm weather and well inflated tires. I think most people like both of those things. High barometric pressure = good thing. Got it. Chris Stoner should rename the site to Baltimore Sports and Science.

Well let’s check the weather and the tires, to see what’s properly inflated and humming along on a pleasant, late summer day – and to see what’s flat and stuck out in the rain.

High Barometric Pressure

Turnovers – I had to dust off my dictionary to decipher this term, because the last time the Terps turned the ball over, it was 2015. Perry Hills completed 72 percent of his passes and I promise that number doesn’t include passes completed to the other team. That would’ve been a 2015 statistic. And this is not 2015 Perry Hills. He’s had no turnovers thus far in the season

Perry Hills – At least for now. FIU and Howard aren’t exactly tough competition, but Hills does look improved from his junior season. As previously mentioned, Hills went 13/18, averaging a whopping 11.3 yards per attempt and 15.9 yards per completion. He picked up 52 yards on 8 carries, hauled in a pass from D.J. Moore off a double reverse to give the Terps first-and-goal, and, even up 28 points in the third quarter, put his body on the line to lay out block. True grit, that Perry Hills.

D.J. Moore – A big night from Perry Hills does not happen without a big night from D.J. Moore. After all seemed well with the Terps going up 17-0 in the second quarter, the Panthers responded with a touchdown of their own on the next drive. Collective rectal tightness was abound amongst Maryland fans. But the offense was more than ready to trade punches with the Sun Belt side, and D.J. Moore caught two-straight long balls to set up (off a 23-yard toss) and punch in (off a 43-yard toss) a score, putting Maryland back up three scores. He would later score the final touchdown of the evening off a short crossing route, where he’d make a cut and find a blocker that sealed a lane to the end zone.

Low Barometer Pressure

Run Defense – The defense as a whole has some kinks to work out, but none more apparent than the run defense. Alex Gardner was sliced Maryland up for 105 yards on the night, ripping off a few big runs, including one for 55 yards and leaving another 30 yards or so on the table due to one of FIU’s numerous penalties incurred. Sophomore Anthony Jones also saw 14 carries for 64 yards that included 19 yard gallop through Maryland’s defensive line. We knew Maryland defense was thin, and it’s still very early, but this is obviously a concern with the more potent running attacks we’ll see come Big Ten play. Against UCF, we’ll have our first chance to see how the DJ Durkin and Andy Buh make an “adjustment” on defense, whether it’s, schematically, personnel-wise or both. Let’s see what they get cooked up.

Rain – Hey, what a coincidence, there was a brief rain shower during Friday night’s game AND low pressure is literally the cause of rain. Love a two-fer during the barometer reading. As Maryland’s smothering of the Panthers was coming to a close, a quick south Florida shower swept through the stadium. It sent Testudo and the cheerleaders scurrying for cover and we had fun shots of the tens of fans still sitting undeterred, cheering on their teams, despite being blasted with rain.

Roll Damn Terps pic.twitter.com/Sx8jW0H3dJ

— Talking Terps (@TalkingTerpsBSL) September 10, 2016

Indiana (Through the TRANSITIVE PROPERTY) – Although this sporting property is normally bullet proof, I suppose there is room for error when comparing performances against a Sun Belt team. Here’s the biggest takeaway from applying the Transitive Property to these results: Maryland basically shut the door on FIU at the end of the first half, while it took Indiana into the the fourth quarter to dispatch the Panthers. Digging a little deeper, I find it troubling that Indiana’s inexperienced defensive line was able to hold FIU to just 67 yards rushing compared to 202 yards against Maryland. Again, how Durkin and Buh respond to this performance will be something to key in on next week at Central Florida.

Google’s first search result when you type in “Maryland FIU boxscore” –

That’s what I Googled and that’s this first link it pulled up. I popped it open in another tab and didn’t look at it until a few minutes later, when I blissfully scored through it for a good 12 seconds until I realized something was amiss.