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MD : 14                                              WVU : 31

“We’ll be fine as long as we don’t have any stupid turno…oh crap never mind”

By Bob W. (at the 14:50 mark of the first quarter)

Overall:  Can’t say that I’m shocked by this outcome, but still it would have been nice to put an end to the ridiculous WVU in the National Championship Hunt discussion.  I’ve been watching a lot of college football this year and between LSU, USC, Florida, and Oklahoma, WVU isn’t anywhere near those guys.  In fact there are about 4-5 ACC schools I can see beating us by 17.  But I don’t want to spend this recap sounding like a sore loser.  So let’s quickly tip our cap to the Mountaineers and move on.

A couple things that concern me, and hopefully they can be resolved.  One thing that isn’t sitting well with me is the RB situation.  Now I don’t know what to say about this, I like both Ball and Lattimore, but I think we might be better off going with Lattimore exclusively.  It just seems to me that he is the type of runner who needs to stay involved.  I think when we pull him for extended periods of time, he has trouble getting back into the grove.  To prove my point lets look at the first 3 drives, noting that the first fumble drive isn’t counted (more on that later). 

The Terps 2^nd drive of the game was exactly what we needed, a slow grind it out, methodical drive that ate up a lot of clock.  It quickly answered the Mountaineers Merry Christmas TD, and at that point I knew that we would be in for a game.  But lets look at what Lattimore did during that drive.  Lattimore had 7 carries during that drive, those 7 carries totaled 29 yards.  And then he only touched it 14 more times the entire game.  I don’t get it.  Not only was he having success running the ball, but he was opening up the passing game for Steffy. 

Now on to the 2^nd drive, Maryland didn’t score on this one, but Lattimore had 5 carries for 34 yards.  Again the team was moving the ball, they held onto it for longer than 5 minutes and we ended the drive still tied.  OK, now lets see what happens when Ball enters the game. 

The 3^rd drive goes like this, Ball rushes for 3, Ball rushes for no gain, Steffy sacked, Baltz punts.  That’s it.  This was when we were in the 2^nd quarter and still tied 7-7.  A big drive here, even one that resulted in no points, would have been huge, but we punted after 3 plays.  WVU scores on their ensuing drive, and it is now 14-7.  I know it’s good to have two great backs, and I’ll never know enough about Football to ever question anything Friedgen does, but what if we would have kept going with Lattimore.  I mean he had 13 carries for 63 yards when he was replaced with Ball, and it doesn’t seem as though he was ever the same afterwards. 

The second issue that bugs me is why don’t we ever throw the ball down field?  Is Steffy not capable?  We have one of the best WR’s in the conference, yet we never try to stretch the field, with the exception of a time expiring heave before halftime.  If Steffy is not able to throw the ball down the field, then perhaps Turner should get a look.  We need the pass to open up our run game.  Lattimore and Ball are good, but if the defense only has to play within 15 yards of the line, it is going to give us fits running the ball.  Whoever is keeping us from going deep, weather it’s Steffy’s arm or Friedgen’s play calling, we need to look into fixing it. 

So to summarize, we did not get our big win, but all in all, it’s okay.  We are still undefeated in the ACC, and we can still make some noise against the Big East later.  We need to get over this one quick because next Saturday is perhaps the biggest football game of the entire 2007 season.  We must go into Winston Salem and beat the Demon Deacons if we realistically think we can compete for the Atlantic Division title. 

Game Highlights:  As mentioned above, Lattimore’s first touch down run.  We answered the early WVU TD (when will we stop giving up points in the opening minutes of big games?).  And it made sure the crowd didn’t give up.  It wasn’t enough, but it was clearly the highlight of the evening.

Game Lowlights:  This is easy.  The first play of the game was a fumble by Steffy.  This can not possibly happen if we were going to have a shot in this game.  Our team is not good enough to overcome turnovers.  We have so many games this year on the schedule that look like legitimate toss ups, that the entire success of our season depends on our ability to hold on to the ball.   

MVP:  You could probably make a case for Lattimore’s 3^rd straight MVP in a row, but I’m going with Erin Henderson.  Henderson had 11 tackles (3 more than the next most on the team) and had 2.5 tackles for a loss.  Not a good day to give out an MVP to a defensive player, but honestly if we had more Erin Hendersons, we wouldn’t be in this mess.   

For honorable mention, I’m going back to Lattimore.  He had 21 carries for 81 yards, as well as 4 carries for 17 yards.  Again no offense to Ball but if Keon was the feature back, he would be putting up some really impressive numbers.   

Random Thought-  Look we all saw Britney’s MTV’s VMA performance, and yes it was the most awkward mailed in effort I’ve seen since the 2005 Orioles, but if I have to hear one more fat, unattractive radio host talk about how out of shape, and how terrible she looked, I’m going to throw up.  If you wouldn’t kick her out of the sack, then don’t make fun of her appearance.   

Around the ACC:

Game of the Week

Boston College 24   Georgia Tech 10- Matt Ryan is on fire.  He threw for 435 yards to lead the BC Eagles into Atlanta and victoriously back out.  This was a huge match up for two teams that are looking to have a say in who will represent the ACC in the BCS.  It is still early, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this weren’t the only BC-GT match up we get this year.  BC now has a 3-0 strangle hold on the Atlantic Division. 

Virgina 22  UNC 20- Before I begin I just want to thank the good Lord that both of these teams are on our schedule this year.  OK now that that’s out of the way, UVA after losing to Wyoming has now gone 2-0 in the conference.  Now it is 2-0 against UNC and Duke, but 2-0 non the less.

Miami 23  FlU 9- Who here now feels a little better about last weeks performance in the Orange Bowl?  Yeah, me neither, but at least now I don’t feel any worse about it.  The rematch between the two teams who came to blow over who’s the big dog in South Florida was all Hurricanes. 

Clemson 38  Furman 10-  You can say what you want about Clemson, but if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t know where or who Furman was.  The Tigers walked all over their perennial Washington Generals, 38-10 in this one, but it wasn’t even as close as this lopsided score made it out to be.  Cullen Harper who is really coming into his own was 16-19 with 3 TD’s. 

Virginia Tech 28  Ohio 7- Though Ohio really never had much of a chance, VT is still looking for their first dominate performance of the year.  The new Hokie QB Tyrod Taylor was 18-31 and had a TD.    

Wake Forest 21  Army 10- Here is another final that left me scratching my head and left me feeling a little more optimistic about our chances next weekend.  The Demon Deac’s had trouble putting away the over matched Army squad.  Wake is now 1-2 and will be looking to get to .500 against the Terps next week.  God I hope they fail! 

Florida State 16  Colorado 6-  The FSU Seminoles went on the road and got it done in this Big 12-ACC match up edging out Colorado 10-6.  Oh wait, that was with them giving the points.  In the real world they handled Buffaloes, by 10.  Thank you Bobby Bowden for the first time perhaps ever, I rooted for you, and you came through.  This win will keep my kid in diapers for a week or two, and when I’m changing them, I’ll think about you (not because of the free diapers, but what’s in the diapers, which reminds me of what you have done to a once football powerhouse).

Duke 20  Northwestern 14- “Duke wins!” that pharse is never heard in the fall, except for the possible exception of the D7 ACC horse racing game.  But the Blue Devils went on the road and proved that the ACC’s worse team can still beat the Big 11’s worst football team.  So take that!  Thadeus Lewis (where else would someone with a name like that go?) threw for 246 yards and 3 TD’s.

NC State 38  Wofford  17-  NC State gets it’s first win of the year thanks to the scheduling prowess of their AD.  Andre Brown had 3 TD’s in this non-D1 match up.