WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Ralph Friedgen wanted Chris Turner to finish the game.
Even when things looked like they had gotten out of hand in the Terrapin football team’s 42-32 loss at Wake Forest on Saturday, Friedgen thought the Terps still had a chance, so he left his starting quarterback in.
Blown defensive assignments, missed tackles and a slow start for a Terp offense that couldn’t keep up with the Demon Deacons put the Terps behind 25 points by halftime.
But the Terps kept their starters in, kept throwing and kept trying to make plays until the end, plugging away to close the gap.
“I was trying to win the game. I still thought we could win the game. That’s why I went for it on fourth down. That’s why I was using my timeouts,” Friedgen said. “I was fighting all the way and so were the kids. I was going to do what we had to do to win the game.”
Ultimately, the kids fell short.
The Terps dug themselves into a massive hole against the Demon Deacons and ended up losing by 10 in a game that never really felt as close as the final score indicated.
The Terps played significantly better in the second half — in what essentially turned out to be garbage time — to make the final score slightly more palatable. But their disastrous start cost them a big opportunity to make a splash in the very mediocre ACC Atlantic Division.
A win would have given the Terps (2-4, 1-1) a two-game lead in the loss column in their division.
Instead, the Terps find themselves in second place behind the Demon Deacons, failing to capitalize on any momentum they might have generated in their ACC opener against Clemson the week before.
“Any time you lose in the conference, it’s a big loss,” wide receiver Torrey Smith said. “We had a lot of momentum going knowing we were the only team on our side of the ACC who hadn’t lost a game. It’s tough, but it’s not the end of the world. We’ve still got a lot of games left.”
Many of the same issues that hurt the Terps in their first four games popped up again in the first half Saturday when the Demon Deacons methodically built a 35-10 lead.
The Terps’ defense had been improving, but Demon Deacon quarterback Riley Skinner led five touchdown drives on the Demon Deacons’ first five possessions.
Skinner led scoring drives of 67, 80, 66, 57 and 77 yards and threw for 243 yards and three touchdowns before the half.
“We were blowing coverages,” Friedgen said. “Guys were supposed to be in third and they were in half. A guy was supposed to be deep middle, and he jumped an underneath route. It’s like we never played those coverages before. I don’t know.”
On the other side of the ball, the Terps struggled to answer back as the young offensive line failed to consistently protect quarterback Chris Turner. The Terps had to mostly abandon their running game after they started to fall behind.
The Terps’ only points before halftime came on a 1-yard run by Davin Meggett in the first quarter five plays after Smith returned a kickoff to the Demon Deacons’ 15-yard line, and on a 50-yard field goal by Nick Ferrara in the second quarter.
“We didn’t come out quite the way we wanted,” Turner said. “But we made some corrections at halftime and we battled back.”
The Terps played like the better team in the second half and held the Demon Deacons to just one touchdown while scoring three of their own.
Turner found Adrian Cannon for a 2-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 35-17 nearly halfway through the third quarter, but that play was answered by Skinner’s fourth touchdown pass of the day.
The Terps added a 15-yard touchdown pass from Turner to Cannon and a two-point conversion, followed by a 4-yard touchdown pass from Turner to Smith in the fourth quarter.
Turner’s only interception of the game ended another promising drive in the fourth quarter, and a failed attempt to recover an onside kick after Smith’s touchdown with fewer than two minutes to play thwarted the Terps’ chances of completing the comeback.
“We missed a heck of an opportunity,” Friedgen said. “I told them I’m going to build on the second half, but I can’t do anything about the whole game, so we better get worried about getting ready for Virginia.”
Terp Notes: Linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield left the game with two broken bones in his hand and Friedgen said the redshirt freshman will undergo surgery and miss three weeks.
Linebacker Adrian Moten suffered a thigh bruise and offensive guard Lamar Young injured his shoulder. Moten is probable and Young is questionable for Saturday’s game against Virginia. Left tackle Bruce Campbell and punter Travis Baltz, who both missed the Wake Forest game, are also questionable for Saturday.
schimmel@umdbk.com
