The Scarlet Letter

When Chris Turner saw Rutgers safety Joe Lefeged coming at him unblocked, the Terrapin football team's veteran quarterback did something he doesn't often do.

He panicked.

As Turner backpedaled past his own goal line late in the third quarter with the Terps clinging to a three-point lead, he tried to avoid taking a sack for a safety. But Turner lost the ball in the end zone and Scarlet Knight defensive end George Johnson fell on it for a game-changing touchdown.

"I messed up," Turner said. "I should have had a plan in my head, but I didn't."

The blunder was one of Turner's four turnovers in the Terps' 34-13 loss, and the second of Turner's turnovers that resulted directly in a defensive touchdown.

The Terps coughed up five turnovers in all, committed 10 penalties and after allowing two late Rutgers touchdowns, they drove most of their fans out of a rainy Byrd Stadium before the game was over.

The Terps (1-3) now head into their first ACC game next weekend against Clemson off to their worst four-game start to a season since 1997.

"It just wasn't a very good effort," coach Ralph Friedgen said. "I'm very disappointed. I'm sure our players are. I'm sure our fans are. All I can say is we'll get back to work on Monday and try and get better."

As they have been all season, the turnovers and penalties were the Terps' major issues again on Saturday.

Turner put the Terps in a hole early when he badly telegraphed a short throw on the Terps' first play from scrimmage. Scarlet Knight linebacker Antonio Lowery intercepted the pass and ran back 36 yards for an easy touchdown to give Rutgers a 7-0 lead just 13 seconds into the game.

Turner threw two more interceptions that didn't lead to points, but the three picks and the fumble in the end zone added up to what Turner admitted was one of the most frustrating performances of his career.

He finished 21-for-38 for 271 yards with one touchdown to go with the three interceptions and fumble.

Lefeged is the same player who hit former Terp quarterback Jordan Steffy and left him with a concussion back in 2007, paving the way for Turner to become the Terps' starter back in 2007.

Friedgen said nobody on the Terps' offense played well, and the offense as a whole was "very, very, very, very poor." But Turner shouldered much of the blame after the game.

"This is the first time really in my career where I feel very responsible for the loss," Turner said. "I feel like I let my team down in a lot of ways."

Terp running back Da'Rel Scott also struggled, finishing with just 22 yards on nine carries. Scott lost his third fumble of the season in the third quarter, a week after Friedgen said Scott wouldn't play if he kept fumbling.

On the other side of the ball, the Terps' much-maligned defense actually put together a pretty solid performance until Rutgers running back Joe Martinek put the game out of reach with touchdown runs of 29 and 61 yards in the last five minutes of the game.

Up to that point, the Terps' defense did not allow a touchdown, and they kept the game close even as the turnovers piled up and forced them to defend several short fields.

Terp punter Travis Baltz injured his non-kicking ankle in the first quarter — he will miss at least the next two weeks and possibly longer — and the subsequent punts from backups Nick Ferrara and Ted Townsley didn't help the Terps' field position cause either.

Six of the Scarlet Knights' offensive drives started in Terp territory, but they only scored six points on those possessions.

Ultimately though, the Terps' defense did not force any turnovers to counteract the ones the offense made, and the late letdown will likely leave a bad taste in their mouths.

"I think it was just a breakdown," linebacker Alex Wujciak said.

With the entire eight-game conference schedule left to play, the Terps know they need to start limiting their mistakes to give themselves a chance to win.

Otherwise, a bad situation is only going to get worse.

"We gotta find some way to stop turning the ball over and to stop getting penalties," Turner said. "We have to. We don't have a choice. If we keep playing like this, we're not going to win a game the rest of the year."

schimmel@umdbk.com