Durkin’s first loss, and a loss of composure
STATE COLLEGE, PA. — A Maryland football team that had spent its first month of the 2016 season under new coach DJ Durkin winning all four of its games, and seemingly growing in confidence with each victory, spent Saturday afternoon going in the wrong direction against Penn State.
The defense that had nearly shut out Purdue in last week’s homecoming game at Maryland Stadium watched the previously slow-starting Nittany Lions score on the game’s opening drive and gash the Terps for 524 yards. The running game that had ground out 400 yards against the Boilermakers didn’t get half that.
After the previous two games in this often heated but one-sided series went down to the wire with the teams splitting a pair of one-point outcomes, the Terps were dominated in a 38-14 defeat. Maryland (4-1,
1-1 Big Ten) lost its starting quarterback and composure along the way.
While giving credit to Penn State (4-2, 2-1) for what might have been one of its more dominant performances under third-year coach and former Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin, Durkin seemed apoplectic, and a bit perplexed, about how poorly his team played.
“We didn’t execute well when we had to in all phases of the game,” Durkin said. “Some really silly things, stuff that hasn’t shown up this year that we did out of character. For our guys, you’ve just got to take this as a learning experience.
“We haven’t gone through a loss together, obviously. Now here we are and a huge part of our sport and what you’ve got to do throughout a season is learn how to bounce back after a loss and really come together. … We’ve got to coach better, we’ve got to play better and stay within ourselves.”
It’s unclear whether the Terps will be trying to rebound at home next week against Minnesota with Perry Hills at quarterback. The fifth-year senior — who threw an interception after being hit and fumbled while getting blindsided after the Terps had recovered a blocked punt at the Penn State 15-yard line — appeared to reinjure his shoulder late in the first half.
“Perry’s about as tough as they come. He was wanting to come back in,” Durkin said of Hills, who went to the dressing room for treatment and spent the second half sitting on the bench. “I didn’t think it was in the best interest of Perry or our team to put him back.”
True freshman Tyrrell Pigrome, who ran for the gamewinning 24-yard touchdown after replacing an injured Hills in the second overtime at Central Florida on Sept. 17, scored on his first play from scrimmage Saturday — a 7-yard run to help cut Maryland’s deficit to 17-14.
In a game when Maryland made what Durkin called “costly dumb mistakes,” the Terps gave up a 45-yard touchdown run to Penn State’s Saquon Barkley with 15 seconds left in the second quarter. It was part of a career-best 202-yard performance on 31 carries for Barkley.
“Just indescribable how we play the next series [after Pigrome’s touchdown] on defense,” Durkin said. “We didn’t call it well TV: Radio: and we didn’t execute well. For them with 52 seconds to run the ball, [three] plays, all the way down the field, can’t even describe how bad.”
A year after holding Barkley in check in a 31-30 loss to the Nittany Lions at M&T Bank Stadium, the Maryland defense could contain neither the sophomore running back nor redshirt sophomore quarterback Trace McSorley. Barkley and McSorley combined for 435 of Penn State’s 524 yards. Maryland finished with just 270 total yards, including 170 rushing.
“We obviously knew going into the game he was capable of running the ball and scrambling,” Durkin said of McSorley. “It wasn’t like we weren’t planning on it. We weren’t playing within the scheme. They hit us on a couple of plays, and all of sudden we had guys trying to make every play instead of the ones you’re supposed to.”
The loss of composure in the second half was typified by what happened after the opening kickoff. Penn State’s Joey Julius had kicked the ball out of bounds, seemingly giving the Terps a good starting position at their 35. But redshirt freshman Isaiah Davis leveled Julius well after the whistle.
Though Davis — the younger brother of former Maryland standout Sean Davis, now a rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers — was ejected as a Minnesota player was last week for pancaking Julius, Durkin said he would not have returned to the game had he not been thrown out.
“He would not have played another snap of that game in any phase,” Durkin said. “That is not our program. We will not do that. Obviously I did not do a good job getting that conveyed to them. The message had been made clear and it’ll be made even clearer now. That is not us. I don’t believe in that. That was a bad play.”
It seemed to fire up the announced homecoming crowd of 100,778 and, in turn, the fans seemed to pump up the Nittany Lions.
“I believe their fans behind them helped them as well,” said sophomore running back Ty Johnson, who had briefly silenced the crowd with a 66-yard catch-and-run touchdown midway through the first quarter. “Everyone gets ready for homecoming. It really gave them emotion.”
Said junior linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr.: “Like everyone knows, they have a huge crowd and they’re going to be loud everywhere they go. We just have to know how to face adversity and know we have to have an answer for it. You can’t play any place any different.”
Asked whether the Terps might have needed to place more importance on the Penn State game than the previous four, Carter said: “There’s definitely no overconfidence. Coach does a great job of keeping all the guys levelheaded and that every game is its own entity. You can’t go into a game thinking you’re going to win just because you won the last one.”
Durkin will be tested to get the Terps in a better place for Saturday’s home game against the Gophers (3-2, 0-2). Given the upcoming schedule — with a home game against Michigan State and road games at Indiana and Michigan to follow — a quick recovery is essential.
“We’ve had so many firsts together, so this is our first loss together,” Durkin said. “You have to learn how to take success the right way, too. … The truth is somewhere in between. We have a homecoming game and totally dominate it and everyone’s telling you how great you are. Then you go to this game and everyone’s going to be kicking us and saying whatever.”
Carter said the Terps have to use the crushing defeat as a positive.
“We’ve just got to learn how to move past this loss. We’ve got to take it and get better throughout this whole week of practice,” Carter said. “We’ve just got to prepare for Minnesota and ball out.” Maryland Penn St. FIRST QUARTER PSU: Gesicki 5 pass from McSorley (Ty.Davis kick), 12:33 MAR: Ty.Johnson 66 pass from Hills (Greene kick), 7:13 SECOND QUARTER PSU: FG Ty.Davis 30, 12:20 PSU: McSorley 9 run (Ty.Davis kick), 6:06 MAR: Pigrome 7 run (Greene kick), :52 PSU: Barkley 45 run (Ty.Davis kick), :15 THIRD QUARTER PSU: Thompkins 70 pass from McSorley (Ty.Davis kick), :00 FOURTH QUARTER PSU: Sanders 25 run (Ty.Davis kick), 5:15 A: 100,778. TEAM STATS 7 7 7 17 0 7 0 7 MAR — — First downs 12 28 Rushes-yards 38-170 62-372 Passing 100 152 Comp-att-int 10-16-1 10-19-0 Return yards 109 58 Punts-avg. 7-38.71 5-27.83 Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-1 Penalties-yards 5-49 6-45 Time of poss 25:00 35:00 RUSHING: Maryland, Harrison 6-76, Pigrome 10-39, Morgan 2-24, Hills 916, Ty.Johnson 5-11, Edmunds 3-8, Goins 1-2, (Team) 1-(minus 1), Funk 1(minus 5). Penn St., Barkley 31-202, McSorley 18-81, Stevens 4-36, Mark.Allen 7-31, Sanders 1-25, (Team) 1-(minus 3). PASSING: Maryland, Pigrome 5-9-0-28, Hills 5-7-1-72. 10-19-0-152. RECEIVING: Maryland, D.Moore 4-15, Ty.Johnson 2-69, L.Jacobs 2-13, Morgan 2-3. Penn St., Thompkins 4-91, Gesicki 4-26, Hamilton 2-35. Penn St., McSorley