Jackson in fix-up mode

Terps quarterback seeking to wipe away mistakes after ‘outlier’ in loss to Temple

COLLEGE PARK — There were many things that went wrong the Maryland football team’s offense in a loss to Temple. Yet even before the Terps and running back Anthony McFarland Jr. were stopped near the goal line several times, quarterback Josh Jackson was intercepted on his team’s opening series.

Unfortunately for Maryland, which was hoping to go 3-0 for the first time in three years and remain in the Associated Press Top 25 going into a bye week before Friday’s Big Ten opener at home against No. 12 Penn State, it ended badly for

Big Ten opener Jackson and the Terps in a 20-17 loss to the Owls on Sept. 14 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Jackson, the graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, overthrew tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo and led slot receiver DJ Turner too far on potential go-ahead touchdowns in the span of 49 seconds on Maryland’s final possession. For the Terps to upset the Nittany Lions, a lot has to go better for the offense than it did against Temple.

Especially for Jackson.

Coming off what was statistically the worst game of his college career — he completed just 15 of 38 passes for 183 yards, with a touchdown and an interception, and was sacked four times and hurried repeatedly — Jackson said Monday that the three days of practice last week were devoted to fixing what went wrong.

“Just clearing up a couple of things,” Jackson said. “Just making sure my reads are correct and make sure I’m looking at the right things. The plays were there [against Temple]; it’s just whether I was executing, and at some points I wasn’t. I have gotten a lot better over these last three practices and at practice yesterday. I’ll be fine. I’m not too worried.”

Asked if the mistakes were mechanical or a matter of not seeing what the Owls were doing defensively, Jackson said: “Probably seeing things better would be the biggest thing. Usually I don’t have too much of a problem with that. For whatever reason, I was struggling and it led to me throwing that pick [on the opening drive], not reading it correctly or seeing it right. … Not seeing as well as I need to, the whole field. It was more of a big-picture thing that I wasn’t seeing very well. It’s unfortunate, but you just learn from it. You get better.”

Jackson’s subpar performance against Temple — which he said was “one of the worst of my college career” — dropped his season’s completion rate to a mediocre 51% (51-100) and his passing efficiency rating into the bottom half of Football Bowl Subdivision quarterbacks (79th out of 124) after an impressive 2-0 start.

Calling Jackson’s performance “an outlier,” first-year coach Mike Locksley said his quarterback watched a tape of the game with offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery. Jackson and Locksley also had a couple of meetings about it themselves. Locksley said that much of Jackson’s problems stemmed from his decisionmaking before and after the ball was snapped.

“I thought we had a lot tougher looks against our previous opponents up until the Temple game,” Locksley said of one-sided blowouts of Howard (79-0) and then-No. 21 Syracuse (63-20). “Obviously what we’ve tried to do with Josh is go back and find out what created the issues he had. I take it back to just having the right kind of eye discipline as a quarterback in the [run-pass option] game.”

“He’s a guy that’s made really good choices and been really disciplined. We got back to some of the fundamental things and reinstalled and reinforced again some of the decision-making and how and why some of those decisions need to be made based on where his eye discipline starts and finishes.”

Locksley also doesn’t put the season’s first loss solely on his quarterback.

“Even in the Temple game, if you go back and look at it, he worked himself through some tough situations and ended up making some big plays for us in the third quarter when we needed it,” Locksley said. “As I told him, as bad as we all played on that side of the ball, we still had two opportunities to win the game running the ball and we didn’t get it executed. And that’s on me as the head coach to teach our guys how to execute and perform when the game’s on the line.”

Junior running back Javon Leake, who watched from the sideline as McFarland was stopped short of the goal line several times, also refused to put the burden on Jackson.

“I feel it was a collective whole as a team. We had a lot of areas we were struggling on offense,” Leake said. “We have a lot of playmakers, but we [weren’t] getting them the ball like we should have. We can’t just put it on Josh. He was still making a lot of good plays. We’ve got to protect him much more. Everybody’s got to come together as a team so we can be a better offense.”

As quickly as Jackson tried to forget how the Temple game started and ended — “I thought I had him,” Jackson said of Okonkwo — he acknowledged that he and his tight end saw some irony in the fact that the same play worked in practice Sunday. They also joked about how Okonkwo had dropped what might have been a big gain earlier.

“So we’re kind of even. We both owe each other one,” Jackson said. “That would have been nice to hit that [last] one, but you can’t keep replaying it because it will affect me the next time. Just moving forward is the biggest thing for me and the offense to do.

“As a quarterback, you can’t think about that last play. Just making sure I keep that out of my head, talking on the sideline with coach, our GA [graduate assistant] Nick [Cochran] is helping me see it better. I was missing throws, I was a little off. You have those type of days. From me, I will definitely characterize it as an outlier and I will be able to play a lot better this week.”

Jackson’s laid-back personality — one that Locksley half-jokingly has called “too cool for school” when he is in the pocket looking to throw — could help him overcome what happened against Temple and help the Terps get their second win this season against a Top 25 team.

“I think he understands how he needs to play in our system,” Locksley said. “I have no doubt in my mind the laid-back personality is who he is. He’s played well. And now maybe he’s had not as good a game as he had the first two opportunities out, but I don’t think we need to hit the panic button or change who he is or change who I amas a coach.”

Said Jackson: “Some quarterbacks are very animated and vocal and going crazy. I’m not like that … I don’t think it hurts me. I’ve played quarterback for a long time and have been able to play at this level with the help of a lot of good players around me, and I’ve been successful.”