Things started poorly for the Terps versus Penn State and snowballed from there, as they were dominated from start to finish, falling by a final score of 51-15.

The Terps had a historically bad day running the football, while quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was sacked six times, lost a fumble and threw an interception. Defensively, the Terps allowed PSU to finish with over 400 yards of total offense and failed to register a turnover.

With the loss, their fourth straight, the Terps dropped to 5-4 overall and 2-4 in Big Ten play.

The Terps will look to find a win to become bowl eligible next Saturday at Nebraska.

Below are several key takeaways from Maryland's fourth straight loss.

Early miscues put Maryland in early hole

Once again, early miscues by the Terps led to an early deficit that they were unable to overcome. It started on offense, with Maryland facing a 4th and 1 on the game's opening drive. After driving 20 yards in six plays, a Tagovailoa pass to Corey Dyches was quickly sniffed out by the defense and he was dropped for a one-yard loss, giving the ball to Penn State inside Maryland territory. PSU then drove 44 yards for the game's opening touchdown.

Things then got worse on the Terps' second offensive possession of the game, as wide receiver Tai Felton fumbled after making a nine-yard catch inside PSU territory. Again, the Terps had driven 50-plus yards and seemed poised to score.

Although PSU was unable to take advantage of the Felton miscue, the fumble coming after a Nittany Lion touchdown to open the scoring seemed to take all of the wind out of the sellout crowd's sails. With Maryland having the first sellout in years, the crowd was looking for anything to cheer about, but an early 14-0 first-quarter deficit seemed to subdue the Terrapin faithful.

Terps dominated in the trenches

One thing that was painfully clear as the game went on is that the Terps simply don't have the necessary size up front to compete for a Big Ten title.

When the Terps had the ball, the o-line was regularly beat like a drum on pass plays that left Tagovailoa seemingly running for his life. Saturday's loss marked the second straight game that the fifth-year senior was sacked six times in a game.

When the Terps tried to run the ball on offense there was nowhere to go. Excluding the sack yardage, Maryland rushed for -2 yards versus Penn State's defense. Only one Maryland player managed to finish with positive rushing yardage and that was backup quarterback Billy Edwards, who had a single run for four yards.

When Penn State had the ball it was equally as bad in the trenches for the Terps, as Maryland's d-line regularly got knocked off the line of scrimmage and pushed back sometimes as much as five to 10 yards.

When Allar was throwing the ball, he seemingly had all kinds of time in the pocket for most of the night, as he had by far his best road game of the season, dropping dimes to receivers in the end zone and finishing with a career-high four touchdown passes.

While Maryland has been able to land loads of talent at the skill positions in recent years, they just haven't had the same success recruiting in the trenches. That needs to get better if they are ever going to truly compete for a Big Ten title.

Secondary struggles again

While Penn State quarterback Drew Allar seemed to have a career day throwing the ball with accuracy, Maryland's secondary still seemed to struggle once again.

Junior wideout KeAndre Lambert-Smith had a typical day for himself, with eight catches for 95 yards. But it was Kent State transfer Dante Cephas who had a breakout game for the Nittany Lions, finishing with six catches for 53 yards and two touchdowns.

Maryland's corners struggled all afternoon to keep the ball out of the hands of Cephas, who hadn't had more than two catches in a single game and hadn't recorded a touchdown coming into Saturday.

The Terps' secondary has now struggled two straight weeks after giving up 265 yards through the air at Northwestern. Senior Tarheeb Still has missed time recently due to injury but others have simply not looked good.

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