Maryland Turnovers Early Kill Any Shot of Winning

This game was really over from the first Maryland fumble returned for a TD. The second one on the very next drive just locked it away. That turnover free ball Maryland was playing during their wins failed to make an appearance on a day there were two fumbles returned for TDs, one interception returned for a TD, and another interception in BC's end zone that took away any chance for points for Maryland.

The defense allowed two passing TDs to BC, but I'm not going to really focus on that. It was 14-0 all on the offense before the defense gave up points. When there were drives when the defense gave the offense a chance, the offense just took that chance and threw it away. Teams can't win on the road with four turnovers, especially when three of them result in points -- 21 points. You take away those three scores, and it's a close game. That's it right there. BC played a great game. I'm not taking anything away from them. But if Maryland was more careful with the ball, it would have been a more exciting game for everyone.

The loss of Darrius Heyward-Bey during the very last play of the second quarter hurt as well. I'm not saying that the Terps would have mounted that insurmountable comeback with Darrius in the line-up, but four dropped passes in the end-zone from Isiah Williams, Danny Oquendo, and Nolan Carroll showed us what an asset Heyward-Bey really is. Those passes should have been caught and it could at least have given us a more exciting game towards the end. Hollenbach was making perfect throws in the end zond, save the interception obviously. Those were catches I think Darrius would have made.

The rest of Hollenbach's game play was less than stellar. He was part of two poor pitches that resulted in the fumbles and 14 BC points. He was part of a bad interception that lead to another seven BC points. Once again, some of his long passes were too far out of bounds. In his defense, he had some good passes here and there, but you just can't excuse giving up 21 points like that. Those are on you, Sam.

On a lighter note, my favorite part of the game is when ESPN was showing the BC "Superfan" preparing for the game. All he did was put on his yellow Superfan T-shirt, a hat, and a scarf. That's not really that extensive. Then the camera cut to the section and the announcers said "Wow, everyone's got a Superfan shirt." Yeah, that's because they probably give them away. It's funny how far removed from college life these announcers are. In fact, major networks should have one college student in the booth to shed some light on college life. They'll say something like "This game is huge. We all sure got wrecked before this one. My buddy Juice puked four times before kick off!" Then you'll have the awkward silence from the old guys in the booth. It'd be unintentional comedy at its best.

I don't think this is the season for Maryland. I think if Wake wins today and Maryland wins against Wake next week, they'll could make the title game. I'm not 100% on that, but I know for sure that for Maryland to have any shot, Wake needs to win tonight. It was a bad loss today. Maryland lost control over their own destiny. They played sloppy ball while BC played some crisp ball. Or so I assume. I didn't actually watch the game -- I was too busy trying to find updates on Tom Cruise's and Katie Holmes' wedding on-line. I heard she was radiant.