Quarterback Danny O’Brien threw for 348 yards Monday night.
It was no secret the Terrapins football team planned to debut an up-tempo offense in its season opener.
Still, the frenetic pace the Terps burst from their locker room with Monday seemed to leave every head without a Maryland state flag plastered on it spinning.
Even those of the refs.
“I thought sometimes the officials were taking too long to put the ball down,” Edsall said after Monday’s 32-24 win over Miami, adding that they were “slowing us down just a little bit.”
Even with any referee-aided delays, the Hurricanes struggled to keep up, especially in the first quarter. Led by quarterback Danny O’Brien, the Terps strung together a precise 11-play drive to take a 7-0 lead less than four minutes after the opening kickoff.
And it didn’t stop there. While the Terps’ lack of red-zone efficiency — just 19 points came from their seven trips inside Miami’s 20-yard line — dulled what could have been a historic offensive outburst, they cut through the Hurricanes’ defense with relative ease all night.
O’Brien spread the ball around to six different receivers with a steady torrent of quick-hitting passes, and often within seconds of the Terps’ ball carrier being dragged down, the offense was back at the line of scrimmage, keeping the pressure on.
“I think tempo really helps us, especially when we’re playing a defense as athletic as Miami’s,” said O’Brien, who completed 31 of 44 passes for 348 yards. “I think that the playing at that tempo can really slow those guys down. We have a really experienced offensive line that can play at that speed. We don’t sacrifice efficiency.”
It was a far cry from the offenses of Ralph Friedgen and James Franklin.
The Terps’ former coach and offensive coordinator, respectively, often opted to keep the ball on the ground and march methodically down the field.
But with first-year offensive coordinator Gary Crowton, who earned a reputation for aggressive offensive attacks during his time with the Chicago Bears, Oregon and LSU, it certainly seemed the Terps would have a different look this season.
That change proved a welcome one in the Terps’ locker room.
“We ran 49 plays in the first half,” O’Brien said, “which is like three whole quarters from last year of our offense. So, I mean, it was a lot of fun.”
For an offense without a proven playmaker outside of O’Brien but no shortage of reliable targets for him, Crowton’s spread-the-ball philosophy may be the perfect fit.
“The scheme that I’ve brought in, that Coach Edsall has allowed me to put in, is a scheme that tries to use skill players,” Crowton said on the team’s media day in August. “The biggest thing other than tempo is just execution; execution is more important to me than the tempo.”
Wide receiver Kevin Dorsey proved to be a threat over the top, leading the Terps with 124 receiving yards against Miami. Quintin McCree and Ronnie Tyler were similarly effective and combined for 13 catches as the most popular targets on O’Brien’s screen passes.
Coupled with running back Davin Meggett’s receiving ability out of the backfield and experienced tight end Matt Furstenburg’s versatility in playing on the line or splitting out wide, the Terps seemed to have an available option every time O’Brien dropped back — especially when they had an open field to work with.
But as they approached Miami’s goal line and the field got shorter, the offense sputtered. With Hurricanes safeties closer to the line of scrimmage and the defense more compact, the Terps’ short passes were snuffed out and their running game was rendered largely ineffective.
Despite 499 yards of total offense, just 19 of the team’s 32 points resulted from offensive scores. In a Military Bowl drubbing of East Carolina last December, by contrast, the Terps posted 19 more offensive points on 21 fewer yards from scrimmage.
Nonetheless, their combination of pace and efficiency — each of the Terps’ seven drives to the red zone Monday took less than five minutes — presented Miami with the unenviable challenge of keeping up.
And the Terps’ tempo could even be a notch higher next time.
“Our pace definitely helped us tonight,” guard Andrew Gonnella said after Monday’s win. “We definitely want to continue to get faster.”
cwalsh@umdbk.com
