Lions Demolish Terps 59-0
At this rate, Mike Locksley will be looking for a job real soon. His Terps started this season with a bang, notching two lopsided victories. Then, things fell apart. A loss to mighty Temple, a bye week, and then a thorough throttling by enigmatic Penn State all seem to predict a downward course for Maryland.
Who Knew?
Meanwhile, are the Nittany Lions on the upswing? The Sanguinarians must be achieving nirvana right about now, predicting national championships and the like. They’ll suck up the media noise and believe it. I heard some schmuck on ESPN saying, “Penn State can play with any team in the FBS.” However, a dose of realistic caution is necessary to daunt the Sanguinistic pipe dreams: N.B., this was Maryland, and they suck.
On the other hand, the Nits are showing some signs of life on both sides of the ball. Turkey like
No One Knows
No one knows. I sure as hell don’t. Like a lot of pseudo-experts, I predicted a one-score game and took the under. [The o/u was somewhere around 60, so I was right! —TNT] No one — and I mean no one — expected what happened under the proverbial Friday night lights at Maryland Stadium, jointly sponsored by the Bloods, the Crips, and Springfield Armory.
Overall, it was a bad weekend for Maryland. The Ravens lost, too, and the best thing you can say about the Orioles is that they were eliminated from playoff contention right around the Fourth of July, so their last-place finish was assured a
Sometimes, You Know Things You Don’t Know You Know
With Purdue on the near horizon, I still lack confidence in the Lions’ ability to contend for the Big Ten title. I sure as hell hope this lopsided win doesn’t give them the false sense of superiority that will compromise their performance against the Boilermakers. They have to come out and play four quarters — in a noon kickoff game. Mailing it in while mentally preparing for Iowa is not an option. Swagger is OK, but they cannot sit back and
You all know the Maryland stats by now, so I won’t bore you by regurgitating them. However, it is nice to know that Penn State now has moved up to #83 in third-down conversions, at 37.2% (That’s what James Franklin said he wanted). Not exactly in Ohio State’s league (56.6%), but they have achieved separation from the sludge at the bottom of the FBS pile.
Around the Conference
By the way, speaking of
Penn State remained at #12 in the AP poll, as all those above that rank who played took care of business during the weekend. Clemson dropped to #2 after a failed two-point conversion by UNC gave the mighty Tigers a slim, 21-20 victory. Our friends at tOSU moved up to #4 with a dominating performance at Lincoln, beating Nebraska 48-7, while former #4 LSU did not play.
In other Big Ten action, #8 Wisconsin beat Northwestern 24-15, but it wasn’t that close. #14 Iowa throttled Middle Tennessee 48-3. #25 Moo U. had some trouble overcoming Indiana, 40-31. Finally, Minnesota, now 4-0, softened up Purdue at West Lafayette, 38-31. We’ll host the Boilermakers on Saturday.
What do YOU know?
I’m anxious to hear assessments of this team’s progress and potential from my six readers, because I sure as hell don’t know what I’m talking about. What do you think? Are you satisfied with where they are?
I’ll be back later in the week to blow off some steam about the Boilermakers.
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eyedoc90 says
Well, Ben. I don’t know either. I don’t even know electricity very well. But it would explain that tingly feeling I get when I wear my tinfoil hat in a thunderstorm. I thought it was the aliens!!! Anyway–I am pleased. Not satisfied. And I don’t think the coaches are either, at least I hope not. With satisfaction comes complacency. And when that happens, the FALL is not far behind. For whatever reason we match up well against Maryland. We have dominated them 4 straight years. Even when we had our 11 game skid against Michigan, some of those games were close. I think our defense will keep us in most games, and if the offense clicks like it did Friday night, it is believable that we could be heading to Columbus undefeated. But we have to play four quarters every game. Every opponent between now and then can beat us. But some have struggled at times (Michigan-Army, MSU-Indiana.) Iowa appears at this point to be our greatest test between now and then, but I have no wins already penciled in. What I like is that we didn’t struggle to beat Maryland. And while the first half of the Buffalo game and most of the Pitt game were hit and miss, we made the plays we needed to make.
The Nittany Turkey says
It was an uplifting win in spite of the remaining “ifs”. One of the biggest, as you articulated, is our shared concern over complacency. A few quotations will serve to fill the air with more Turkey poop. How often does this Turkey quote Scriptures? Not often, but I’m about to.
Proverbs 16:18: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Joe 409:136:3: “You’re never as good as you think you are when you win, and you’re never as bad as you think you are when you lose.”
The old coach’s mantra applies. One game at a time. No sleepwalking through the first half. Noon kickoffs suck, but get over it guys. Hell, you weren’t awake for the first half of the Buffalo game and it was an 8 PM start. I’m hoping the boys have turned over a new leaf as of last Friday night.
—TNT
Big Al says
The short answer is that the SDR will not come any earlier than the Iowa game and that 8 wins are the minimum for this season as long as Clifford stays healthy. The defense is going to dominate provided they don’t face a mobile, accurate quarterback, and the offense will roll provided Clifford is given enough time to make his reads.
IMO this means the final season record will depend upon the outcome of four games – Iowa, Michigan, Moo U and tOSU. The Schmuckeyes are almost certainly a loss and the other three are lose-able games although Vegas will probably make PS a narrow favorite in all of them. Right now, I’m inclined to think that the Kitties finish 10-2 with wins over Iowa and Michigan and losses to Moo U and tOSU. (i.e. Grundsau Daag, deja vu all over again) But my opinion could change depending on what happens next Saturday in Ann Arbor and Columbus.
The Nittany Turkey says
We agree that the SDR will wait until Iowa, which has been scheduled as a 7:30 PM kickoff at Kinnick, but I will not fall into the trap of looking past Purdue. The team better not do that either.
I’m still not moving off 8-4 until I see some signs of life over quality opposition, although I’ll have to see something more from the two outfits in Michigan before I declare them to be quality opposition. I’m not sure as you that the Kitties will beat Iowa, but I’ll say they can beat one or the other UMich or Moo U. I agree that tOSU is a big stretch.
We’ll definitely have the Iowa-Michigan game going on the second screen on Saturday and we’ll watch Moo U.-tOSU later.
Some Sanguinarians are already plotting strategy for the game against Wisconsin in Indy. Jeez!
—TNT
K. John says
I am not sure Maryland even tried in this one. Sitting in the upper deck at the 35 yard line, I had a great view due to the compact nature of the Twerps stadium. I would estimate the crowd was 50/50 Penn State vs. Maryland. From the get go, we had a receiver that was open by 2 to 3 yards on almost every single pass play we ran and 5 yards a quite a few of them. It only got worse as the game went on. Personally, I think we learned more about this team in the opener than we did on Saturday.