Randy Edsall can’t explain it, and his players can’t, either. But for some reason, their Terrapins football team didn’t wake up until halftime of last Saturday’s game against West Virginia.

The second-half resurgence that nearly led to a comeback victory was a valiant effort. But heading into tomorrow’s game against Temple, it’s hard not to be troubled by the Terps’ inconsistency.

The Terps don’t just need a win over the Owls; they need to play a full game. Not a good half, not a few solid scoring drives. Sixty minutes of consistent football — something we have yet to see at Byrd Stadium in 2011.

“This is the mindset that I’m trying to create here, that you can’t take a half off. You can’t take a quarter off, you can’t take a play off. Two of our opportunities are down, we’ve got one to go right now,” Edsall said. “They’ve got to be ready to go right from the get-go. I try to tell them, ‘You can’t just flip a switch and think you can turn it on.'”

The 21-0 scoring run against the Mountaineers was enough to bring them back to the brink of victory. But even if quarterback Danny O’Brien hadn’t thrown an interception as they drove for the possible winning score and the Terps had won, it wouldn’t have been enough to silence one question:

Which team can be expected for the rest of 2011? Is it the inept, turnover-prone and defensively fragile Terps that took the field in the first half, or the second-half squad that ran and passed the ball with authority while shutting down one of the best offensive attacks in the nation?

The Terps asked themselves that question during halftime of the West Virginia game, and they think they can find the answer this week.

“It was just a gut check,” cornerback Dexter McDougle said. “We looked each other in the eyes, like: Come on, guys, we know we can play better than this. This isn’t us.

“We went out there and played how we know we can play. And honestly, I think we can play even better than that, so we’ll see this week.”

The West Virginia game wasn’t the first time we saw the Terps’ Jekyll and Hyde act. Even in a 32-24 victory over Miami on Labor Day, the Terps faced a bit of an identity crisis. They would operate with the offensive dominance of one of the better teams in the country one drive, then stall out on the next. On the defensive side of the ball, the Terps managed four turnovers. But on other drives, they allowed seemingly uncontested touchdowns.

“It’s tough,” O’Brien said, “because you just know how good we can be.”

Their struggles against Miami can be chalked up to first-week doldrums. And against West Virginia, O’Brien was without two of his top wideouts, and the defense was going up against an elite offense.

Despite those obstacles, the Terps still nearly won, making their uneven play that much more maddening. On its best day, this team can beat a team like West Virginia.

The Terps don’t need their best day against Temple, they just need a consistent one. As impressive as the Owls have looked this year, the Terps are talented enough to win this game.

“It’s going to be a good challenge for us, especially coming off a game where we made some mistakes, myself obviously included. So it’s going to be a tough challenge,” O’Brien said. “We’re going to have to play consistent football.

“This loss was tough. If I have anything to do with it, we’ll get off to a good start.”

The Miami victory and West Virginia near-comeback proved the Terps have the potential to be one of the best teams in the ACC. They also proved they have the potential to be a mess at points in coming games.

Tomorrow against Temple, they need to prove that one was a fluke, and not the other.

schneider@umdbk.com