MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Even before fans settled into their seats, everything went wrong for the Terrapin football team.
It was ugly early – and then it got worse.
On a night when the Terps were out to show a national television audience they could hang with the nation’s elite, West Virginia sophomore running back Steve Slaton and the rest of the Mountaineers instead flexed their muscles and stomped all over the Terps’ hopes.
Behind Slaton’s 195 yards and two touchdowns, the Mountaineers embarrassed the Terps 45-24 last night at Milan Puskar Stadium.
With 60,513 fans looking on under the lights, Ralph Friedgen’s team collapsed early and could never recover.
“It’s not the greatest way to start the game off, everything that went wrong, could go wrong, did go wrong,” Friedgen said. “A lot of them were star-struck, but we gotta start getting over that if we wanna be the team we wanna be.”
After looking forward to the attention of playing on ESPN on Thursday night, the Terps suffered from poor decisions and dismal play on offense, defense and special teams.
What were minor mistakes in the Terps’ first two games became major ones and the No. 5-ranked Mountaineers capitalized. The Terps committed five turnovers, the most since Nov. 18, 2004, when they turned the ball over five times in another ESPN Thursday night game: a 55-6 blowout loss to Virginia Tech.
Looking to improve on their overall performances in their first two games, the Terps were unable to stop the West Virginia offense, which put up 256 first-half yards. And although the Terps were eventually able to build an offensive attack, they didn’t do so until well after the game was out of reach.
Senior quarterback Sam Hollenbach said Tuesday it would be nice to make a statement on the opening drive, but the Terps won the coin toss and chose to defer, something Hollenbach just chalked up to coaching strategy.
It looked like the Terps would benefit from a Slaton fumble on the Mountaineers’ opening drive, but the referees ruled the running back was down. The ball clearly wasn’t rolling for the Terps, and West Virginia proceeded to run right down the Terp defense’s throat, gaining 69 yards – all on the ground – en route to a Slaton touchdown.
From there, the rout was on as Terp blunders piled up.
On the Terps’ first kickoff return, senior cornerback Josh Wilson and sophomore wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey botched a planned reverse and West Virginia recovered. Three plays later, the game was 14-0, and the Terps had dug themselves too deep a hole to claw out of.
“We were just put in a situation, our backs were against the wall right when we got out there,” junior running back Lance Ball said. “It’s hard to come back from that.”
Just days after saying he hoped every carry against the Terps would be a touchdown, Slaton all but made good on that declaration by racking up 9.3 yards per carry.
On his first touchdown run, Slaton did his best Reggie Bush impression. Slaton ran to the left before cutting back to the right, breaking a tackle and tiptoeing down the sideline and flashing electrifying speed, finishing the play in the middle of the end zone.
Even after missing some practice time this week with a minor ankle injury, Slaton made the Terps appear sluggish, speeding up and changing direction, illustrating a clear focus on making a statement – one that resonated with the Terps.
“It’s very frustrating for me, obviously we prepare all week and we know what’s gonna happen,” senior linebacker Wesley Jefferson said. “We just didn’t get it done.”
Slaton’s play set the tone for a very long night on the Terp sideline. And on a night when the Mountaineers’ rapid start and the hostile environment put the Terps in a deep hole, senior leaders made key game-changing mistakes. Hollenbach threw two interceptions and Wilson fumbled the ball on a second quarter kickoff return after electing to run from five yards deep in the end zone instead of settling for a touchback.
Last night’s defeat dropped Friedgen’s career record in Thursday night regular season games to 3-5. His Terps have lost five of their last six appearances in that limelight.
Although upset with how the game went, Friedgen said there were bright spots in the performance, especially his team’s resolve in the second half down by a few touchdowns. He said one game does not make a season, and that his team didn’t take a step back because of their second-half play. Hollenbach agreed that the team can learn from the game, but added there are no moral victories.
“It’s definitely a step back in the sense we’re 2-1. We have a loss now,” Hollenbach said
Words couldn’t shake off the emotions Friedgen and his team felt during the game, or erase the result.
“We got our butts beat,” Friedgen said. “There’s nothing I’m gonna say or do that’s gonna change that.”
Contact reporter Stephen Whyno at whynodbk@gmail.com.
