It is not often the ideals of conservatism and unpredictability can peacefully coexist in the same realm.

More than a few political examples immediately come to mind, as it’s difficult to imagine conservative Tom DeLay (R) and loose cannon Howard Dean (D) sitting down for tea and exchanging childhood summer camp stories.

There are, however, strange and isolated cases of harmony. Possibly inspired by the recent campus visit by Mary Matalin and James Carville, The Fridge deserves his due for engineering the perfect marriage between conservatism and unpredictability during Saturday’s triumph over N.C. State.

As far as explaining the conservative approach, look no further than the number nine – the number of passes attempted by senior quarterback Sam Hollenbach during the game. And out of those nine, maybe three thrown balls traveled more than five yards downfield.

Such a conservative attack hasn’t been this successful since Dean Smith’s four corners offense.

So Mr. Hollenbach, have you ever had a game where you used that right arm any less?

“Nine attempts it was?” Hollenbach answered, needing further confirmation from a pool of reporters. “I don’t know if I ever had one, maybe junior high. Week-to-week we change our offensive planning, and this week we didn’t need to throw as much.”

Spaced evenly throughout the first three quarters, the seven completed attempts produced solid-if-not-remarkable results. Besides the relatively low-risk nature of short passes and screen plays, the biggest reason for the Terps’ success was the opportune situations.

“Everybody’s going to look at your tendencies, everybody’s going to see what you like to do on what down,” Hollenbach said. “It really does open things up when you see a defense playing your tendency, you can kind of go against that.”

The Terps proved that to be an understatement Saturday. Consider this statistic: Out of five designed pass plays The Fridge called on either first or second down, the Terps gained first downs on four, good for 105 yards – almost half of their offensive output.

A screen pass to the ultra-quick Keon Lattimore and a beautifully executed pass off a bootleg to Darrius Heyward-Bey led to Dan Ennis’ first of four field goals, giving the Terps an early 3-0 lead. Hollenbach’s third quarter, 20-yard scramble led to the Terps’ second touchdown and a 20-0 advantage. These plays all came on downs usually earmarked for runs by Lattimore or Lance Ball.

On this team, there is no question the natural tendency is to hand the ball off to one of the two aforementioned stellar running backs. But the few plays each game that are not handoffs need to be productive ones.

More than anything, Saturday’s blend of conservatism – spiked with a shot of unpredictability – proves the Terps can be successful against average ACC foes without taking a risky shot downfield or a gadget trick play.

And while that approach may not be the most exciting for fans, it sure beats losing.

If The Fridge can make conservatism and unpredictability harmonious again, maybe he could even get DeLay and Dean to shout out a collective, celebratory “Biahhhh!”

Contact columnist Daniel Chiat at chiatdbk@gmail.com.