Thrown for a loss

The most surprising thing about the Terrapins football team's loss to West Virginia might not have been the loss itself, or the comeback that the Terps came tantalizingly close to completing.

The big shock wasn't even that Danny O'Brien struggled. It was how he struggled.

It's hard to remember a game in O'Brien's young career in which he looked so off-kilter. Locking onto and staring down receivers, making bad reads, throwing into double coverage and sometimes off his back foot — we aren't accustomed to seeing these mistakes from the redshirt sophomore. Even when he has struggled during his short time in College Park, interceptions were few and far between.

Save for a three-pick performance against Clemson last season, we had never seen O'Brien falter quite like he did Saturday. The adjustment to the college game was a remarkably smooth one for him, making his stumbles that much more unusual.

But for whatever reason, less than two weeks after he played like the best quarterback in the ACC versus Miami, he regressed against West Virginia. He didn't look right for most of the afternoon, although he insisted after the game that he was comfortable the whole time.

Coach Randy Edsall theorized that O'Brien might have been trying to do too much, perhaps putting too much pressure on himself. Considering the early hole the Terps found themselves in, that wouldn't be surprising. As the Terps' defense struggled to stop the Geno Smith-led offense, O'Brien needed to air it out to get back in the game.

At some points Saturday, O'Brien started to look like the quarterback that makes this team relevant. His touchdown toss to Kevin Dorsey, thrown off his back heel into the right corner of the end zone, might have been the one of the prettiest of his Terps career.

But with a chance to win the game, he threw an interception that ended any hopes of an upset.

Saturday proved that there are things that this Terps team can overcome. Halftime adjustments turned a blowout into a barnstormer. D.J. Adams showed he might be the cure to the Terps' red-zone woes. The defense came up big late after getting burned early.

O'Brien playing as he did for much of Saturday isn't something the Terps can survive. Luckily, they most likely won't have to. His performance isn't the end of the Terps' season, and it sure isn't a sign of O'Brien's demise.

As good as he has looked in the less than two years he's started, there are bound to be growing pains. This one has to hurt — he called the loss the worst he's ever suffered — but he'll learn from it. Maybe before he can take the step from elite ACC quarterback to elite national quarterback, he just needs to step back.

"I love Danny O'Brien. Danny played hard, played his heart out, made a few mistakes," Edsall said Saturday. "The quarterback's always going to get criticized. But you know what? He's a great young man, and he'll get better from watching this film.

"Danny will be fine because Danny's not going to play perfect. I know all of you want him to, and I want him to. He's going to make mistakes at times, too. … He's still learning."

O'Brien's bounced back before, and he will again. He came back from that three-interception day in Death Valley last October with a three-touchdown effort against Boston College. He'll have a similar opportunity over the next two weeks against Temple and Towson — two teams that aren't nearly as good as the West Virginia defense that haunted him.

And even against one of the Big East's best, O'Brien shook off a first half during which he was less than stellar to help lead a 21-0 run that brought the Terps one touchdown away from an epic comeback.

His three picks doomed the Terps and put much of the blame for the loss on him, and rightfully so. But the suspensions of Ronnie Tyler and Quintin McCree sent the receiving corps into disarray, and Dorsey conceded that miscommunication in terms of route running may have played into O'Brien's struggles. Whether Edsall wants to admit it, those receivers were missed Saturday.

O'Brien was emotional in the locker room after the loss, and he thanked his teammates for the support they offered, raising him up on a day he felt he let them down. That camaraderie is a good sign for the Terps, but nothing is going to take the sting out of this loss for them.

The Terps will lose games again before O'Brien graduates. Just don't expect them to fall so squarely on his shoulders too often.

"I'm definitely going to put it behind me," O'Brien said. "This is the worst feeling in the world, and it's not going to happen again."

schneider@umdbk.com