After an impressive freshman campaign for which he earned last season’s ACC Rookie of the Year honors, Danny O’Brien was all but anointed the savior of the Terrapins football team.

The buzz only grew this summer, with his picture splashed across local newspapers and his name featured on national watch lists. A near-flawless showing in the team’s season opener against Miami delivered on the hype, then raised it even higher for the sophomore quarterback.

In Saturday’s loss to then-No. 18 West Virginia, though, O’Brien came crashing back to Earth.

He threw three critical interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown and another that cut a potentially game-winning drive short, and was largely ineffective in the first half.

When the Terps entered the locker room facing a 17-point deficit, O’Brien was a middling 14-for-25 for 112 yards. His offense, perhaps more tellingly, had also struggled to establish any semblance of the up-tempo attack that had devastated Miami.

For much of Saturday, he stared down receivers, forced passes into tight coverage and appeared generally out of rhythm. And while he found his game in the second half, completing 12 consecutive passes at one point and nearly leading the Terps to a remarkable comeback, his miscues and inconsistency factored heavily in the team’s loss.

A lack of familiarity with the options at his disposal likely played a part in O’Brien’s struggles. In the first half, he targeted No. 1 wideout Kevin Dorsey 10 times, five more than any other Terp. And with starting wide receivers Quintin McCree and Ronnie Tyler suspended, O’Brien appeared uncomfortable at times targeting replacements Tony Logan and Kerry Boykins.

So by the time O’Brien began to spread the ball around in the second half, completing 20 of 27 passes to eight receivers, the damage had already been done.

“The thing you have to do when you’re in a team situation, you have to trust everybody. I think in the first half, I think Danny let some things not allow him to be as productive as he needed to be,” coach Randy Edsall said. “I don’t think he let the game take its natural flow … and didn’t make his natural throws and predetermined some things and was going to throw to certain people without seeing what the defense was doing. In the second half, you saw him going with his reads and the ball was being spread around and he was being a lot more productive.”

It wasn’t the only hiccup in O’Brien’s young career. In a 31-7 loss to Clemson last season, O’Brien threw three second-half interceptions in a failed comeback attempt. A separate come-from-behind bid against Florida State last year also ended with a Seminoles interception after O’Brien had led the Terps within range of the end zone. In fact, of O’Brien’s eight career wins as a starter, just one — a sloppy 21-16 win over Duke last season — featured a second-half Terps comeback.

Ultimately, instead of offering the latest proof that O’Brien was set to join the company of collegiate stars Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley and Landry Jones as one of the nation’s top signal callers, Saturday’s loss to the Mountaineers served as a reminder to the Terps that their quarterback is still far from perfect.

“The young man is only a sophomore. … He is still learning, still growing, and I am glad we have him because he is very good,” Edsall said. “But sometimes you have some days that are not as good as other days. And everybody has high expectations for him and he has high expectations for himself.

“The guys in the NFL, Peyton Manning has thrown three interceptions before and other guys. But I know this: He will learn from it and be better for it. I know he’s anxious. He probably wishes he could go out there right now and play another game and get this one out of his mind and go out there and play better.”

cwalsh@umdbk.com