Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Columbus, OH–
After an embarrassing performance against Iowa, the Terps traveled to Columbus to face the 7th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes in hopes of getting back on track… well the final was anything but that. The train is derailing and heading down a steep embankment at this point.
The 66-17 loss at the hands of the Buckeyes leaves Terps Head Coach Mike Locksley searching for answers on how to stay close in a Big Ten game.
Midway through the first quarter, the Buckeyes had a narrow 7-3 lead over Maryland and it perhaps looked as if it might be somewhat of a close game. Well that’s where apparently the Terps team took a U-turn back to College Park with their defense and Ohio State continued to heat up offensively and pick the Terps defense apart.
On the next series after the Terps gave up the ball. Ohio State’s offense went back to work and went 75 yards on five plays and strolled into the end zone against an injured and struggling Maryland defense and opened a 14-3 lead. This would be the last time the game was anywhere close to in range for the Terps.
“I felt we could have executed better,” head coach Mike Locksley said. “We played 5th and 7th ranked teams in the country and we’re obviously not there yet. We have a lot of work to do as a program.” When do they start? We are 5 weeks into the season with the most difficult schedule ahead of them.
Ohio State had 598 yards of total offense today, 432 of which came in the air. It is the most passing yards and total yards the Terps defense has given up this season. Stroud finished the day on 24-33 passing, with 406 yards, five touchdowns and a 73% completion percentage.
“We had guys looking like they fell out of airplanes, they were so wide open,” Locksley said.
People have expected more from this team and they have not gotten much of it since Week 2. Not one fan is going to remember what happened with Howard or Kent State at this point. The problem going forward after getting run off the field with 99k fans watching is… the remainder of their schedule. How do you prepare for Minnesota on Oct 23rd and then Penn State on November 6th?
The best thing going for the Terps is the week off, where Locksley can hopefully find a way to get around the various injuries that he has now seems to have mounting up at key positions. Jeshaun Jones, who was starting in place of Demus, went down with a lower-body injury and was carted off the field. A depleted receiving core became even thinner as Jones did not return the rest of the game. We will see if they are able to get him back before the game against the Gophers.
