Maryland mistakes costly as Terps fall to Minnesota at home

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Costly penalties, numerous turnovers and shaky play by their backup quarterback making his first college start led to the Terps’ demise Saturday as Minnesota came into College Park and left with a 31-10 victory.

TERPS INSIDER message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on TERPS apparel | LIKE us on FACEBOOK

Maryland (4-2) was looking to rebound from its blowout loss last weekend at Penn State, but Minnesota (4-2), which was also starting its backup quarterback, Conor Rhoda, took advantage of the Terps’ miscues and handed head coach D.J. Durkin his second consecutive loss.

“Obviously a very sloppy performance,” Durkin said. “We killed ourselves with penalties and turnovers, especially early in the game. Playing from behind is obviously a hard thing to do with a freshman quarterback and we want to run the ball first in our offense and when you fall behind it makes that a little harder. I felt like we had a good week of practice but it just didn’t carry over. We didn’t play with the same sense of urgency and grit that we’ve played with for most of this season for whatever reason...Probably our sloppiest game so far this season with the penalties and the turnovers.”

The Terps hurt themselves with four turnovers, the second of which--a muffed punt return by Will Likely--set up the Golden Gophers for their first score of the game--an 8-yard run by redshirt sophomore running back Rodney Smith. Likely was injured while attempting to field that punt and did not return to the game. Smith would later add a 70-yard touchdown run to his totals and led Minnesota’s backfield with 144 yards on 18 carries.

Maryland had a difficult time stopping the run for the second week in a row. Minnesota rushed for 229 rushing yards and two touchdowns against the Terps mostly on the backs of Smith and sophomore Shannon Brooks, who led the Golden Gophers with 22 carries and turned them into 86 yards on the ground. Brooks also converted a 17-yard pass into a score in the second quarter.

“They’re a team that has been averaging over 200 yards rushing per game,” Durkin said. “They’re effective and good at running the ball.”

Besides turning the ball over and porous run defense, Maryland also continuously shot itself in the foot by committing penalties. The Terps were penalized nine times in the game for 75 yards, including six holding calls on offense.

Not only did Maryland’s untimely penalties cost them yards upfront, but they also stifled any momentum the Terps offense built throughout the game.

“We’re a tempo offense so when you get a first down as a tempo team you can kind of get rolling,” Durkin said. “But we go and get a long run and then there’s a holding penalty so there’s no tempo. So now everybody walks back and now it’s 2nd and 20. We could just never get back on track. We were never really in sync.”

Despite not being able to get out of their own way, the Terps might have put up more of a fight against Minnesota with a better performance from their true freshman signal caller, Ty Pigrome, who was responsible for three of the four turnovers.

Pigrome’s second throw of the game was intercepted by Minnesota defensive back KiAnte Hardin, and while that turnover didn’t result in any points for the Golden Gophers, the Terps’ offense never got going behind the former Alabama high school player of the year, who ended on a bad note by throwing a pick-six and losing a fumble late in the fourth quarter.

Pigrome finished 18-for-37 passing for 161 yards and one touchdown to go along with his turnovers, but Durkin was not about to pin the responsibility of the loss on his rookie quarterback.

Rather, Durkin pointed to the team’s overall lack of discipline that led to the penalties and turnovers as the main reason the Terps fell flat.

“We continued to feel like [Pigrome] gave us our best chance to win,” Durkin said. “It wasn’t all him at all. There were a lot of issues going on. There were penalties on several big plays so I didn’t feel like [the offense] was just an issue on his part.”

Durkin added that making a quarterback change in the middle of the game against Minnesota never crossed his mind. Although regular starter Perry Hills was cleared to play with his shoulder injury and had practiced in a limited fashion throughout the week, Durkin opted to sit the senior signal caller in favor of the healthier Pigrome.

“I don’t feel it’s in [Hills’] best interest or the team’s to have him out there right now,” Durkin said. “It’s one of those things where it’s a ticking time bomb and it’s going to get hit again. We’ll continue to re-evaluate that starting tomorrow and all the way through next week. That was a decision by me. Perry is as a tough as they come and he wanted to play but I thought it was in our best interest to have Piggy out there.”

Having now dropped back-to-back Big Ten games, Maryland looks to get back on track next weekend when the Terps host Michigan State, which won the conference’s East Division last season and came away with a 37-15 victory at College Park in 2014.

“We have an unbelievable opportunity coming up,” Durkin said. “It’s a Big Ten East game here at home. It’s a night game. It will be a great environment. It’s a great opportunity for us so it’s what we do with it now.”