When the Terrapin football team was flagged for 10 penalties in an easy 62-3 win against Morgan State early last month, coach Ralph Friedgen coolly dismissed it as early-season rust.
When the Terps were penalized eight times in their 42-28 win against Florida International earlier this month, Friedgen mentioned penalties in his post-game press conference, though only in passing.
But when the Terps committed 10 more penalties in the team’s 31-7 loss to Clemson on Saturday, Friedgen was no longer willing — or able — to skirt what has become a recurring problem.
“The penalties,” Friedgen said, “we’ve got to find a way to get better at that. Otherwise, we are just beating our heads against the wall trying to be successful.”
The Terps totaled 93 yards in penalties Saturday, and some came during critical moments in defeat.
In his first road start and only the third overall of his career, redshirt freshman right tackle Pete DeSouza struggled mightily with the task of stopping the Tigers’ unit of athletic defensive ends.
Star pass rusher Da’Quan Bowers had three sacks and four tackles for loss and combined with Tiger linemate Malliciah Goodman to force DeSouza into two holding penalties and a false start.
Still, perhaps the most damaging penalty came on the other side of the ball. On the final drive of the first half, Terp cornerback Cameron Chism was flagged for a crucial pass-interference call on Clemson receiver Marquan Jones. The Terps had just forced the Tigers into a 3rd-and-8, but the penalty allowed Clemson to continue onward. The Tigers later scored a touchdown with 32 seconds left in the half to take a 10-point lead into intermission.
“That pass-interference call was a big call right before the half,” Friedgen said. “Penalties were big momentum-stoppers for us.”
But Death Valley isn’t the only place where yellow flags have been flying around this season. The Terps are one of the most heavily penalized teams in the country, ranking 107th out of 120 teams nationally at 8.2 penalties per game and 109th with 71.8 penalty yards per game.
Before Saturday, the team’s troubles hadn’t mattered much because the Terps had won again and again largely in spite of their troubles.
Their next stretch of schedule won’t afford them such luxuries. Saturday’s game pits the Terps against a reeling Boston College team, but they still have stiff tests against Miami, Florida State and N.C. State looming on the horizon.
There also aren’t any teams of Morgan State’s caliber left on the schedule. Even Virginia, which has lost to 10 straight Football Bowl Subdivsion opponents, hung with Pac-10 power USC earlier this year.
“If, in the game, you’re worried about what you can’t do, you won’t be able do what you can do,” defensive tackle A.J. Francis said. “So you have to be able to play like you’re capable of playing but still know what’s in the range of what you can do.”
lemaire@umdbk.com
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the number of holding penalties offensive tackle Pete DeSouza committed against Clemson. DeSouza had two holding penalties.