Two losses in one for football

LANDOVER – Saturday offered the Terrapins football team one last chance to reignite the buzz that had surrounded the program mere months ago, to recapture some of the momentum from a season-opening win over Miami.

But donning their "Maryland Pride" uniforms at FedExField before a prime-time, national-television audience did nothing to turn around the Terps' tailspin. All that audience saw was what Terps fans have become long accustomed to: four quarters of abuse in an eventual 45-21 loss to the Fighting Irish.

The Terps' sixth consecutive defeat was just another step toward what will now undoubtedly go down as one of the program's worst seasons in recent memory. A season-ending injury to quarterback Danny O'Brien won't help, either.

"It's very frustrating," linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield said. "To lose the way we did, it's just like we gave up. We didn't fight like we did against Miami. We didn't play like we did against Miami.

"Seasons like this, everything's going wrong. It's easy to quit. That's one thing we don't want to be known as."

The loss played out like a broken record for the Terps (2-8), who, in what has become a season-long ritual, were bitten by a slow start. After a three-and-out on offense, their defense devolved into little more than a turnstile on the Fighting Irish's ensuing touchdown drive.

Not much changed for the remainder of Saturday night. The Terps were again completely unable to stop the run, as Notre Dame running backs Jonas Gray (136 yards, two touchdowns) and Cierre Wood (99 yards, one touchdown) faced little resistance.

Their offense could find no consistency, either, going three-and-out four times and surrendering a backbreaking interception to Notre Dame cornerback Lo Wood, who took the pick 57 yards for a touchdown midway through the third quarter. That score put the Fighting Irish up 38-7, erasing any faint hopes of a Terps comeback.

"It's always something," wide receiver Quintin McCree said. "We get something going and there's an offside penalty or a missed block or a dropped pass. It's always something we can't afford. We have to be going at all cylinders for this offense to work."

It wasn't until the Fighting Irish (7-3) jumped out to a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter that the Terps finally showed life.

Coach Randy Edsall plugged running back D.J. Adams — who had received just one carry since Oct. 1 — back into the lineup, and the Terps were finally able to sustain a drive. A 61-yard march upfield ended with a touchdown reception by McCree that cut the Fighting Irish's lead to 10.

But that was the first and only time the game was ever in question for Notre Dame. Bolstered by a sizable cheering section more than 600 miles from home, the Fighting Irish cruised downfield on the ensuing possession and punched a fourth-and-goal plunge into the end zone with 0:29 left in the half.

Notre Dame never looked back from there. The Terps' two fourth-quarter touchdowns came long after the game had been decided.

In front of 70,251, the Terps extended their season-long embarrassment. For the third time in five weeks, they gave up more than 500 yards of total offense.

And things may only get worse over the final two weeks. Edsall announced afterward that O'Brien — who earned the game-time decision starting job — would miss the remainder of the season after breaking a bone in his upper left arm in the third quarter.

Edsall was terse in his postgame press conference and spoke for less than four minutes. His players were similarly frustrated by a season that continues to spiral out of control. Like Edsall, none of them could offer an answer for the plague of inconsistency that has come to define their coach's first season in College Park.

"We have to just stop making some of the mistakes that we've been making week in and week out," Edsall said. "We've got to tackle better, get off on third down, we got to make third downs, we can't drop the ball."

It sounds easy enough. Only this season, it's been anything but.

cwalsh@umdbk.com