Terps lose at Georgia Tech; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

It was an interesting day in Atlanta for the University of Maryland Terrapins. The defense was playing without 6 starters, facing Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense. Georgia Tech entered the game with the leading offense in the Country, and ranked 13th Nationally in the Top 25.

The Maryland passing game was so poor today, that the Atlantic Coast Conference’s defending Rookie of the Year Danny O’Brien would wind-up on the bench. His replacement, was the athletic CJ Brown. During the Spring and Summer, Coach Edsall talked about how Brown was pushing O’Brien. The understudy showed his ability to make plays with his feet today, and helped rally the Terps from a 21-3 deficit to within a TD.

Alas, it was not enough as MD would was not able to finish the comeback, ultimately losing 21-16.

The Good:

1) Considering that Maryland was without 6 defensive starters, (not to mention that Hartsfield got hurt today), and were against a prolific Georgia Tech offense; I am very enthusiastic about the Terps defensive effort.
1a) The Terps forced 5 punts, and after O’Brien’s 2nd Quarter interception, the Maryland defense stepped up and held the Yellow Jackets to a Field Goal attempt which was missed.
1b) With Georgia Tech driving to end the half, Dexter McDougle was able to get the crucial interception. Maryland was still down 11 points, but the interception kept Maryland in the game.

2) After not rushing the ball once on the opening series, Meggett, Pickett, and McCree combined for 51 yards on the ground on the Terps second possession.
2a) Meggett had 18 carries for 86 yards, and a TD.
2b) Pickett had 10 carries for 32 yards.

3) On 3rd and 7 on Maryland’s second possession, O’Brien hit Boykins for 17 yards to sustain the drive. In six attempts, this was the only pass O’Brien completed.

4) Late in the 3rd Quarter, WR/PR Tony Logan eclipsed the MD Quarterbacks with a 34 yard pass of his own to fellow WR Kevin Dorsey.

5) Helped by a strong block by Dorsey, QB CJ Brown showed his athleticism breaking off a 77 yard TD run. You can’t teach speed. Brown would finish with 126 yards on the ground on 9 attempts.

The Bad:

1) Maryland received the ball to start the game. The talk all week was about the Terps needing to be able to run the ball, move the clock, and keep the Georgia Tech offensive off the field. Maryland elected to pass the ball three times, which included an early drop from Ronnie Tyler, and went three and out. Less than 30 seconds into the game, the Terps had to punt.

1a) Later, Tyler would drop another pass. The ball was tipped in-front of him, but Tyler still had the opportunity to make the catch on 4th and 8 from the Georgia Tech 8 yard line at the end of the 3rd Quarter.

2) The Terps had to settle for a FG on their second possession, when Jeremiah Wilson dropped a pass on 3rd and 7 from the Georgia Tech 12 yard line.

3) After forcing Georgia Tech to punt early in the 2nd quarter, MD would go 3 and out on the following series. Facing 3rd and 7, the Terps O-line was not able to give O’Brien any time to throw, and the young QB was sacked.

4) Brown was doing some good things on Maryland’s first possession of the 2nd half, but threw a poor interception to end the drive. Despite his TD run, Brown was incomplete on his first 10 pass attempts.

5) Boykins had another drop in the 3rd quarter.

6) Down 21-3 late in the 3rd, Maryland elected to go for it on 4th and Goal at the Georgia Tech 8. With as poor as the passing attack had been to that point, I would have preferred putting points on the board and getting something out of that drive.
6a) On 1st and Goal in that series, MD elected to pass the ball, and got nothing. With as poor as the passing attack was today, probably needed to try and pound the ball in.

7) In the 4th Quarter, Maryland faced 3rd and Goal down 21-10. The Terps would punch it on 4th down, but the 3rd down call where the Terps emptied backfield and threw it was poor.

8) On 4th and 8 on their last possession, Brown would throw deep down the field missing Boykins. I did not like that call after the time out, and I did not like that after starting with 1st and 10 on their 44 yard line, that the Terps would throw the ball on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down.

9) Based on the adversity they were facing, the Maryland defense did their job overall; but Georgia Tech was 13 of 20 on 3rd down.

The Ugly:

1) O’Brien’s 6th interception of the year came on the Terps 4th possession, and immediately after Georgia Tech’s second TD. The window he threw into was extremely small, and the pass was forced. While O’Brien looked comfortable in Crowton’s offense in the Opener against Miami, he has looked nothing like the QB we saw last year in the games since. The Maryland Coaching staff needs to review the game tape from last year, see what was working best for O’Brien, and incorporate that into the current offense.
1a) Shortly thereafter, O’Brien would be replaced by CJ Brown. In 5 weeks, we have gone from O’Brien looking like a guy that would be playing on Sunday’s to being replaced as the MD Quarterback. Part of that is on Crowton for not getting O’Brien comfortable, and part of that is on O’Brien for not making the adjustments.
1b) Maryland was held to just 86 yards passing, with 34 of them from a WR.

2) Any good vibes MD had going to the locker-room at half-time were eliminated by the 79 yard kickoff return they allowed to start the second half.

3) A depleted MD defense saw Hartsfield have to be helped off the field.

4) The offensive line lost Andrew Gonnella to injury, with the OG having to be taken off the field on a stretcher and via an ambulance. (I should have noted this above, but Georgia Tech’s Coaches, Players, and their Fans had a classy reaction to the injury.)