DURHAM, N.C. | Maryland was close to logging a full game without committing a turnover. It also had a chance to escape with a desperately needed victory against a traditional ACC cellar dweller.
Then, like the torrential rain for much of the afternoon, a deluge of miscues arrived to doom the Terrapins to a 17-13 loss to Duke at Wallace Wade Stadium.
Maryland (2-6, 1-3 ACC) committed two turnovers in the final five minutes - including Tony Logan’s muffed punt return to seal the setback - as the Terps stumbled for the fifth time in six games.
“It just seems like no matter how hard we try, we just can’t seem to break through,” coach Ralph Friedgen said.
The tattered Terps limp into their bye week with faint bowl hopes. Maryland cannot secure better than a .500 record, and even that sort of showing would require a shocking turnaround.
The opportunities to avoid such a fate existed the last two weekends in games featuring weather more worthy of a biblical epic rather than mediocre ACC football. But Virginia and the Duke both survived in the rain when it mattered and turned back the Terps.
“I don’t know what to say,” linebacker Adrian Moten said. “It’s like there’s no luck for us right now. Things are just going against us. I think we played pretty good besides all the mistakes that we had, on offense and defense and special teams. If we just eliminate those little plays and key plays on fumbles and missed coverages, we’ll be fine.”
The defense’s problems were minimal in the muck. Thaddeus Lewis, the pass-first and pass-second quarterback for the Blue Devils (4-3, 2-1), rolled up 371 yards and two touchdowns. But considering Duke barely acknowledges a ground attack, it was a more-than-acceptable total.
Plus, the Terps forced three turnovers, a welcome change from recent weeks, and watched as Duke committed 12 penalties to aid Maryland’s chances of saving its season.
However, the Terps’ offense sputtered for the second consecutive game, getting a touchdown only when Chris Turner tossed a screen to Davin Meggett, who exploited a convoy of blockers for an unorthodox 67-yard touchdown pass - Maryland’s longest play of the year - to close within 17-13 late in the third quarter.
But it was a lone offensive highlight, and the Terps have just one touchdown over the past two weeks.
“I’m not happy with it,” said Friedgen, who acknowledged several injuries as a factor in the bumbling.
Nothing, it seemed, could consistently ignite Maryland’s offense. Freshman tailback Caleb Porzel started and accounted for 52 total yards, but his longest rush was 8 yards. Wideout Torrey Smith (two receptions) had a muted day. And the Terps used yet another offensive line, shifting Paul Pinegar to left guard to fill in for the injured Bennett Fulper and Lamar Young.
The weather didn’t help, either, essentially forcing Maryland into vanilla, run-heavy play calls - clearly not the Terps’ forte.
The Terps ran a meager four plays inside the Duke 25, gaining yards on just one. And rather than exploiting an opponent’s generosity, Maryland managed just a field goal off the Blue Devils’ three miscues - and even those points came without the benefit of a first down.
“I thought we could score all day,” Turner said. “We were just dying out in the red zone, and we couldn’t throw the ball when we wanted to. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. If it wasn’t raining, who knows what would have happened. But it was raining, and we got away from what we wanted to do.”
Late in the afternoon, the downpour subsided. Yet it was then that Turner made a poor read and zipped a pass into Duke linebacker Vincent Rey’s tight coverage. When the Terps finally forced a punt, Logan charged in only for the slippery ball to bounce off his chest and leave Maryland four games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 1998 season.
“I thought we were going to get through it without a turnover,” Friedgen said. “Then we throw the interception. Tony’s trying to make a play. I understand that. But you’ve got to make a play.”
Those plays haven’t been there, and Maryland picked up more than 15 yards just twice. And then there are the turnovers, the every-week bugaboo certain to be chiseled into the epitaph of the season should the Terps fail to reverse course.
“Going 6-6 is our [possible] accomplishment now,” Moten said. “That’s our goal right now, and being a .500 team at least. Other than that, it’s about pride and about not backing down and being a man. I don’t want any of our guys to quit because none of us are losers. There’s been a lot of close games that we’ve had, and we just have to come up with them.”
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