A blowout for Terps, but no one's blown away

The final score looked how it was supposed to — like a blowout, a 25-point victory for the D-I program over its in-state fodder.

But until the Terrapins football team pulled away late in the second half against Towson, it was hard to tell which was fighting for bowl eligibility and which was gunning for an FCS playoff spot.

The 28-3 score doesn't show it, but against an FCS team, in their own stadium, the Terps were outplayed for much of the day.

Coach Randy Edsall and his team can say that a win is a win all they want, but there is no way on earth they're happy with the circumstances of that victory. Not against Towson. Not after what happened against Temple the week before. It might have been one of the Terps' most underwhelming, unimpressive, unpromising 25-point wins in program history.

The Terps found the end zone on the game's opening drive, then didn't score again again until the third quarter. Their fast-paced, hurry-up offense didn't sustain a drive longer than 3:02 during that first half, while the Tigers made the Terps' defense look inept against the run.

Even with wide receivers Ronnie Tyler and Quintin McCree back, quarterback Danny O'Brien was once again off the mark. Second-string quarterback C.J. Brown took over for one drive, something Edsall said was part of the game plan. But considering how poorly the reigning ACC Rookie of the Year had played — he threw for fewer yards than Towson's backup quarterback — it seemed at the time like a possible benching.

It might have been a completely different game had the Tigers not dropped passes, racked up 77 yards of penalties and telegraphed interceptions to Terps defenders. Towson outgained the Terps on the day, had the ball for 11 minutes longer and was more effective on third down.

Maybe the Terps did overlook the Tigers, as one player suggested after the game. That's a laughable idea now. Pretty soon, it will be other teams overlooking the Terps.

At this point, there isn't much to see.

"We still have a long way to go," Edsall said. "It's my job as the coach to make sure that our young men understand that, yes, we did some good things today. But we still have to get better."

Afterward, the team seemed to understand this: There's no excuse for letting a team like Towson hang around as long as it did. But the fact that Edsall pointed to "new wrinkles" in the Tigers' playbook to explain the Terps' early struggles isn't exactly reassuring. It shouldn't matter what Towson throws at any BCS team. It's Towson.

Most worrying for Edsall should be how flat the team looked — again. After getting blown out the week before against Temple, the Terps still slogged through this game. They had a chance to blow off some steam against an inferior team, but as embarrassing as that loss was, it didn't look like there was much there Saturday.

In the darkest days of the Ralph Friedgen era — and there were some bleak ones — the players never looked quite as detached as they have these past two weeks.

So Friedgen can burn his diploma, fly a Georgia Tech flag and laugh for now — because his replacement hasn't done much better than him this year. The whole purpose of firing last year's ACC Coach of the Year was to take this team to the next level. Four games into this season, that hasn't happened.

Though the final score didn't tell the whole story, in the end, both teams assumed their roles. Towson is an FCS team, and yes, the Terps are a BCS squad.

Just not a very good one yet.

schneider@umdbk.com