MARYLAND BADNESS

There comes a point in any losing season when miscues reach redundancy, mental errors are no longer arbitrary and blunders cannot be described as "flukes."

On a cold, wet Homecoming evening in Byrd Stadium on Saturday, the Terrapin football team repeated all the same mistakes of its previous six games. A rain-soaked ball slipped from the grips of two running backs. A torn-up field tripped some of the team's most athletic players. But the mistakes were familiar ones, hardly aberrations in a season quickly slipping out of grasp.

Coach Ralph Friedgen and the Terps now face a steep climb to avoid a fourth losing season in six years. Four Terp turnovers led to a 20-9 loss to Virginia, their third straight to the Cavaliers, burying the season's strongest defensive effort to date and leaving the ninth-year head coach looking for answers about a team he describes as one of his hardest-working.

"I told them that until we stop turning the ball over, we can work 24 hours a day — they can work as hard as they want to work," Friedgen said. "We're just giving games away. I don't think these teams that are winning are better than us, but we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot. And until that gets corrected, it's not going to happen."

It would be easy to blame the rain. The Terps fumbled four times, threw two interceptions and missed two late-game kicks with waterlogged balls. By halftime of a three-point game, most of the 44,864 fans — the lowest homecoming attendance at Byrd since Friedgen's first season — had disappeared.

But in the face of raindrops swirling across the field, the Cavaliers committed just one turnover. They completed more than half of their passes, even with quarterback Jameel Sewell knocked out of the game near the end of the third quarter.

And as the Terp defense clamped down on the Cavalier offense, they still found ways to score touchdowns — one on an interception return and one on a two-yard drive at the end of the game after holding the Terps on fourth-and-17 with 1:47 remaining.

"They couldn't get anything on us," linebacker Alex Wujciak said. "We knew what they were doing. The defense was just all over the place today. ... They should have had three points on the scoreboard — not anything else.

"It hurts because we are better than some of the teams we've lost to," he continued. "And it's just frustrating because we're not finishing games out."

The defense, though, played its part.

Aside from one bad half against Wake Forest last week, new coordinator Don Brown has made strides with his unit each week of the season. Saturday, the unit put together its most complete effort, tallying five sacks and allowing just two drives of more than 30 yards.

The Terps outgained Virginia, 284-201, and committed just two penalties, addressing a problem from earlier in the season. But the loss left players, on offense and defense, wondering if they could have done more.

"Really, it's not our job to score points, but we want to score points," said defensive tackle Travis Ivey, who recovered a fumble. "I had an opportunity to scoop and score. I didn't know who was around me, so I just fell on the ball. ... But what the other team is doing to us, we should be doing to them. Our goal is always to outplay the other defense. And they scored tonight, and we didn't. So they outplayed us."

At times, though, the Terp offense made it easy on the Cavaliers. On one play, freshman running back Caleb Porzel broke into open space near the middle of the field. Playing in the second game of his Terp career, the speedy Porzel lost his footing and fell to the ground, completely untouched.

On a key third-and-19 with less than half a quarter remaining in the four-point game, wide receiver Kerry Boykins dropped a pass that would have put the Terps in the red zone.

And on the game's biggest play, quarterback Chris Turner had a wide-open receiver in the slot, but his pass was too low and was deflected at the line. Virginia defensive end Nate Collins grabbed the batted ball for an interception and ran it in for a touchdown.

"Nine times out of 10, that wouldn't happen," Turner said. "But it did today."

That's been the story of the season thus far. The Terps have only been clearly outplayed in two of their losses. But a team that beats itself still loses, and the Terps have now dropped to 2-5 for the first time in the Friedgen era, thanks largely to the 118th-worst turnover margin in the FBS.

Still, every team in the Atlantic Division now has at least two conference losses. The Terps' remaining schedule is mostly favorable, with a road trip to Duke (3-3, 1-1) next week, followed by a bye.

And there is a lot to build on. With left tackle Bruce Campbell playing the entire game, to the surprise of his coach, the offensive line had its strongest performance of the season so far. Running backs Davin Meggett and Gary Douglas led the way to 126 total rushing yards, the first time the Terps have broken 100 since the Sept. 19 loss to Middle Tennessee. And the defense can build off a game in which it allowed just nine first downs and 63 yards on the ground.

Friedgen has praised this team for its practice habits all season. But he's also repeated that winning breeds confidence, and the Terps have yet to do much winning this year.

In the home locker room of the Gossett Football Team House, the Terps posted a list of goals for the season. Some — such as going undefeated at home — are long gone.

Others, such as winning an ACC Championship, seem long shots at this point.

"When coach said [the team's record] at the end of the game, I was kind of just mind-boggled," Wujciak said. "Maryland's used to winning. That's why you come here. Gator Bowl. Orange Bowl. Peach Bowl. Those are what you come here for. Obviously, it's not happening right now."

ajoseph@umdbk.com