The Terrapins football defense did its job on the first possession of Saturday night’s 37-15 loss to No. 12 Michigan State, as the Spartans’ high-octane offense failed to score a touchdown on its opening series for just the third time all season.
Terps inside linebacker Cole Farrand broke up a pass on third-and-9 to force a punt, which bounced through the end zone for a touchback. Quarterback C.J. Brown and the offense jogged onto the field for a drive starting on their own 20-yard line. Then a familiar scene unfolded.
Brown lined up in the pistol formation, took the snap and faked a handoff to running back Wes Brown before rolling to his right. Eyes downfield, the sixth-year signal-caller locked in on receiver Jacquille Veii. He fired a weak throw on the run. Safety Kurtis Drummond was waiting and jumped the route.
For the second straight home game, it appeared Brown would throw an interception on the team’s first play from scrimmage. But Drummond dropped the easy pick as the sellout crowd of 51,802 at Byrd Stadium breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The reprieve lasted mere minutes, though. Two plays later on third down, Brown sailed an errant throw off his back foot over the middle of the field. This time, Drummond made no mistake in catching the football, and he returned it inside the Terps’ 30-yard line.
The play marked the first mistake in a rough night for Brown, who completed 46.5 percent of his passes and threw three interceptions, the last of which was returned for a touchdown late in the third quarter and gave the Spartans a then-16-point lead that proved insurmountable.
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Brown did throw two touchdown passes, including a 20-yard strike to wide receiver Daniel Adams early in the second quarter that brought the Terps within two points. But ultimately, his untimely errors and lack of accuracy limited the team’s offensive efficiency.
“You sit there and shake your head and say, ‘Where did that come from?’ That’s the thing that’s frustrating as a coach, and those are the things you’re working on each and every day to try to get them to do it the right way all the time,” coach Randy Edsall said. “You see them make the right reads, make the right throws, and sometimes you scratch your head and say, ‘How the heck did he do that?’”
The team’s offensive struggles don’t rest solely on Brown’s shoulders, though. The Spartans’ physical front seven outmuscled the Terps offensive line, as Edsall’s squad rushed for 6 total yards on 17 carries while Brown was sacked three times.
That inability to run the ball — which Edsall expected against the Spartans’ press quarters coverage — meant short possessions and third-and-longs.
And because of an ineffective passing game, the Terps went 2 of 13 on third down and mustered 22 minutes, 28 seconds of possession compared to more than 37 minutes for the Spartans.
“Offensively, we’ve got to hold ourselves accountable,” Brown said Saturday. “We didn’t step up to the challenge today.”
The struggles proved even more frustrating for Brown and Edsall considering the Terps’ stout defensive performance.
The unit held the Spartans to 16 points through most of the first three quarters and provided the offense with an opportunity to come back despite Brown’s early interception and a muffed punt from cornerback Will Likely that set Michigan State up with a short field.
Perhaps most impressive was the defense’s work against quarterback Connor Cook and the Spartans’ potent passing attack. Cook, who had completed nearly 60 percent of his passes entering the contest, connected on fewer than half his passes against the Terps secondary and tied his worst passer rating of the season at 110.2.
“Our defense was battling all day, and we just couldn’t execute,” Veii said of the offense. “I know the coaches are going to say that we lost as a team, but I feel like we didn’t hold up our part of the deal.”
Edsall’s frustration with Brown’s decision-making was evident as he addressed the media in Gossett Team House after the loss.
And in his Sunday conference call, the fourth-year coach hinted at the possibility of a quarterback change for the first time all season. Backups Perry Hills and Shane Cockerille could both be in contention.
The opportunities left on the field by the offense Saturday were too much for Edsall to ignore.
“If we can’t be more productive, then I think we have to take a look at those guys,” Edsall said. “I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. But if [the play] dictates that we do that, then I’ll do what’s in the best interest to help us get a win.”
