Maryland Football: Third down defense has excelled

The Maryland football team has definitely had their fair share of trouble defending the run.

However, the Terrapins have actually been very successful in their third down defense.

Through six games this season, Maryland is allowing their opponents to convert just 31.6 percent of their third down attempts. That is good for fifth in the Big Ten behind just Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Nebraska.

Between those four schools, the only losses are a pair from the Badgers.

In Saturday’s 31-10 loss to Minnesota, Maryland did an admirable job of defending third down plays. The Golden Gophers were just 4-of-14 on third down and stuck to the running game on a majority of their attempts.

On five of those third down attempts, Minnesota set up to throw the ball. Quarterback Conor Rhoda completed just one of his four passes and was sacked the other attempt by defensive end Chandler Burkett.

Now let’s take a closer look at each of those three incompletions and the sack.

Part of the reason for the success against the Golden Gophers was dialing up the pass rush. Defensive coordinator Andy Buh and his group knew that Rhoda wasn’t very comfortable throwing the ball, so they brought the blitz quite a bit.

On Rhoda’s first incompletion, Rhoda was actually calm under pressure, but threw the ball behind his tight end. That allowed linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr. to knock the ball out of the breadbasket of Nate Wozniak.

The Terps brought just four down linemen on the pass rush on that particular play.

On Rhoda’s second third down incompletion, Maryland did the same thing as they brought just four defensive linemen on the pass rush. Defensive tackle Cavon Walker ended up getting free as the play broke down and drilled Rhoda as he let the ball go.

Even on Burkett’s sack in the second quarter, the Terps showed like linebacker Jalen Brooks was going to come up the middle on the blitz. However, Brooks ended up dropping back and coverage and Maryland rushed the four linemen again.

On Rhoda’s final third down incompletion, the Terps brought the four linemen one more time. However, Rhoda was well-protected this time, but was still almost picked off by freshman cornerback Tino Ellis on a simple curl route.

Rhoda ended up completing just 7-of-15 passes throughout the entire game. Part of that had to do with Minnesota’s talented ground attack.

However, Maryland also has a very strong pass rush that ranks second in the Big Ten. The Terps averaged 3.0 sacks-per-game and have 18 total on the season.

Maryland’s 18 sacks are only second to Michigan’s 24.

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The Terps used their pass rush to fluster Rhoda and the Golden Gophers on third down. If they continue to do the same to their remaining opponents and stop the run even a little bit, the results could be vastly different than they were on Saturday for the Maryland football program.