Cut down to size

The final whistle couldn't sound any more merciful than it did at Byrd Stadium early Saturday afternoon.

As Temple quarterback Chester Stewart took a knee on the game's final play, the Terrapins football team could finally seek shelter in its locker room and lick its collective wounds after suffering through a 60-minute assault.

With a thorough 38-7 blowout victory, the Owls had handed the Terps a sobering reminder that they're far from the team they thought they were.

"There is no need to sugarcoat things," coach Randy Edsall said. "We got our butts kicked today."

Edsall and many of the Terps afterward used the word "embarrassing" to describe the result. That, in fact, may have been an understatement.

The Owls physically manhandled the Terps (1-2) on both sides of the ball. Running back Bernard Pierce ran for 149 yards and a school-record five touchdowns — the highest mark of any back against an FBS team this season — and the Owls scored on their first five possessions to take a 31-0 lead into halftime.

Temple's defense recorded three sacks and kept quarterback Danny O'Brien off balance — or on the ground — all game. The Owls (3-1) even blocked a punt to set up their third first-quarter touchdown, the first the Terps' special teams had allowed in 139 games.

"We didn't have the physical toughness today, and it showed," Edsall said.

The Terps were, on the whole, inept. Their 240 yards of total offense fell short of the production of Temple's ground game (285), and they trailed by 28 points before they ever advanced the ball past midfield.

Their defense simply had no answers for Pierce and backup Matt Brown (76 yards), both of whom broke countless tackles to help hand the Terps their worst loss since a 52-13 drubbing by California in 2009.

"As a coach, this is hard to say, but it came down to will," Edsall said. "Their will was a lot stronger than our will today."

It was a far cry from the Terps' effort just 19 days before in a season-opening victory over Miami. And it made their first-half disappearing act in an eventual 37-31 loss to No. 22 West Virginia look tame.

Saturday, in front of a sparse crowd generously announced at 39,102, the Terps appeared lost, coming out flat and maintaining that incompetence from start to finish.

"They executed their game plan better than we executed ours," running back Davin Meggett said. "We knew the deal, we just didn't do it. It was more on our side than it was on theirs."

"We were preaching all week: ‘Start fast, start fast,'" defensive tackle Joe Vellano said. "We got down early, and I think people started double-thinking stuff."

The Terps rushed for a dismal 45 yards Saturday, and 38 of those came on the team's final drive against Temple's second-stringers and with backup quarterback C.J. Brown under center. That drive ended with an 18-yard touchdown pass to tight end Devonte Campbell, the team's only score of the day.

As the Terps struggled to move and hold onto the ball — their time of possession (18:59) was the team's lowest in nearly a decade — the Owls methodically marched down the field behind Pierce and a strong play-action passing attack. Stewart, a third-stringer entering Saturday's game, completed all nine of his pass attempts for 140 yards.

"This game was embarrassing to play," O'Brien said. "Coming off a loss like last week, we wanted to get back in the win column and we came up very short."

While further discouraging an ever-fickle and already dwindling fan base, the loss also effectively ended the national hype that had followed the Terps after splashy threads accented their season-opening win over Miami.

Saturday made it painfully clear the Terps have more to worry about on the field than what they're wearing.

"We have to prove something to the entire world," guard Andrew Gonnella said, "because right now, we've lost our credibility and we need to get it back."

TERPS NOTES: Edsall announced yesterday that sophomore safety Matt Robinson will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. Robinson's 36 tackles lead the Terps.

Edsall also said that he had reinstated suspended wide receivers Quintin McCree and Ronnie Tyler, who will return to the field Saturday against Towson.

cwalsh@umdbk.com