The Terp special teams unit played terribly last night. They had two fumbles and allowed a backbreaking kickoff return late in the first half.

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – If the inability to stop the Mountaineers’ running game dug the early hole for the Terrapin football team last night, it was woeful play on special teams that buried them.

After West Virginia moved the ball with ease on its opening drive at Milan Puskar Stadium to jump ahead by a touchdown, the Terps then came back with the worst possible response.

The Terp coaching staff called for a reverse on the ensuing return, and the call didn’t provide the spark they hoped.

Senior cornerback Josh Wilson fielded the kick, ran to his right and attempted a hand-off to freshman receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey. Instead of a clean handoff, the ball hit the field-turf and rolled into the hands of the No. 5-ranked Mountaineers, giving the Terp offense no chance to react to the opening 7-0 deficit.

“It was just a little bit of nerves out there,” Wilson said. “It was just a play just like every other play. We were trying to make things happen, and it kind of backfired on us.”

The muff on the Terps’ first kick return set off a series of special teams miscues that largely contributed to the loss.

After the Mountaineers recovered the fumble, they took the ball 11 yards on three plays putting the Terps in a 14-0 hole within the opening five minutes of the game.

“We always had that … just a misexchange between Darrius and Josh,” junior running back Lance Ball said of the fumbled kickoff. “Things happen. It sucked, but things happen.”

Then, in a rare moment during the game, the special teams provided a beautiful play that looked to quiet the earlier lapse – punter Adam Podlesh placed a kick to the Mountaineers’ four-yard line.

The punt acted as an apparent signal of the return of solid of special teams play the Terps showed in weeks prior. But the special teams unit soon turned bad again.

The poor kick-return play resumed with 5:49 to go in the second quarter after the Mountaineers converted a field goal to take a 24-point lead. Wilson again played a central role in another mistake on special teams. This time, instead of kneeling the kickoff which was kicked deep into the end zone, Wilson got to the 26-yard line and fumbled the ball again.

“Some of the turnovers came on special teams,” coach Ralph Friedgen said. “Obviously those guys gotta hang onto the ball too.”

The second Wilson fumble was not the last of the Terps’ special team lapses. The next one came on the other side of the exchange and was the perfect seal for a disastrous first half.

With 49 seconds to go, right after a Dan Ennis field goal, West Virginia sophomore wide receiver Darius Reynaud returned the kick 96 yards to the house – after fumbling the ball at the beginning of the return.

In total, the Mountaineers returned five kickoffs for 167 yards and one touchdown – a whopping 33.4 yards per return in a game where they didn’t even need good field position to score. On the other side, the Terps had seven returns for only 89 yards – 12.7 yards per try.

“It wasn’t our day. The past two games that has been our M.O., having great play on special teams,” Wilson said. “Today we just missed out on a lot of things.”

Contact reporter Bryan Mann at bmanndbk@gmail.com.