While watching Maryland football lose its first game of the season Saturday to Michigan State, 27-24, one position group stuck out: the secondary.
However, it was not because the Terps recorded three interceptions. It was quite the opposite. The secondary allowed 363 passing yards and three passing touchdowns, letting receivers continuously slip past them for big plays.
The most discouraging part about the performance is the Terps have no excuse for it. They threw almost everything they had at Michigan State, playing nine different defensive backs.
Sophomore Kevis Thomas and freshman Lloyd Irvin III have yet to play this season with injuries, but Thomas only played in six games last year, in which he recorded two tackles. Unless an underclassmen rapidly improves over the next few weeks, there’s not much the Terps can do personnel-wise.
So what can they do?
“We got to keep the ball in front of us, obviously,” head coach Michael Locksley said Tuesday. “And so what we’ve got to do as coaches is go back to the drawing board. … We have talented players on the outside, they’re young. So, how do we help them grow [and] mitigate the risk of what happened on Saturday?
“And I think that’s the part where we got to keep somebody over the top, we got to keep somebody in the middle of the field, or, sometimes, just play man coverage and let these guys — they’re talented enough to — run around and cover people,” Locksley continued.
Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles set a new career-high in yards and touchdowns Saturday. In comparison, Chiles completed 10-of-24 passing attempts for 114 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions the week prior against Florida Atlantic.
The Terps also allowed a plethora of untimely big plays, including 57-yard, 34-yard and 23-yard completions, but the most costly was a 77-yard touchdown pass to tie the game with 4:22 remaining in the final quarter.
“The outcome of this game was dictated by who made the most big plays,” Locksley said, “and they executed and created the bigger plays.”
On Michigan State’s game-winning drive, Chiles again bullied Maryland down the field, completing five-of-six passes for 43 yards.
The secondary also played carelessly, committing three accepted penalties for 35 yards. Starting cornerback Jalen Huskey was responsible for two of them. One was an offsides penalty on a missed field goal attempt, which allowed Jonathan Kim to take and make a shorter field goal to end the first half, and the other was a pass interference on third-and-10 to extend Michigan State’s eventual game-winning drive.
In addition, four of Maryland’s six lowest-graded defensive players against Michigan State were cornerbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. Starter Perry Fisher occupied the lowest spot with a 46.6 rating.
In coverage, Huskey, Fisher and freshman cornerback Kevyn Humes were the three lowest-rated players, with PFF grades all below 50.
For reference, Michigan State’s three starting cornerbacks — Angelo Grose, Charles Brantly and Ed Woods — received a 66.7, 64.7 and 52.4 rating, respectively.
With limited unexplored options in the secondary, Locksley and defensive coordinator Brian Williams will likely have to take a conservative approach to their coverage schemes and hope their players learn and adjust.
“We’ve dealt with these growing pains,” Locksley said. “Deonte Banks — who was a first round draft pick — as a true freshman, he had rough days a couple times too.”
