Monday Maryland Musings: Five Takeaways From Syracuse

Sep 7, 2013; College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Terrapins special team player Alex Twine (35) leads the tackle of Old Dominion Monarchs kick returner Aaron Evans (15) at Byrd Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

2.) The defense has some serious issues to overcome

The Maryland Terrapins defense have given up 1,842 yards of of total offense through four games. Simple math tells you that’s 460.5 yards per game surrendered, which puts them at 108th nationally. The Terps are getting demolished defensively in large part because of the injuries sustained in the linebacking corps, but the problems are still deeper than that.

Syracuse isn’t an offensive powerhouse by any stretch, and though the Terps did just enough to stop the Orange from scoring many points, they marched down the field on their own volition. It felt like the Orange blew it rather than the Terps doing anything substantial.

Maryland hasn’t done a great job applying pressure on the QB, and Will Likely remains their best pass rusher. Now with Quinton Jefferson out for the year, things stand to get even worse. The linebackers simply aren’t doing a good enough job covering open receivers or getting to the opposing runner early enough. In the red zone, Maryland does just fine, but it’s between the 20’s that they’ve got work to do.