COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Just days after committing six turnovers in a 24-17 win over South Florida, the Maryland football team has an obvious point of emphasis.
It certainly doesn’t need to be discussed much entering Saturday’s meeting with West Virginia.
“It was almost a thing where you didn’t even need to talk about it because everyone knew it was that important,” said quarterback C.J. Brown, who threw two interceptions and lost a fumble on Saturday. “We can’t set ourselves back like that. To come out with six turnovers, to put the ball on the ground and have the interceptions we had, we can’t go out there and do that.”
It certainly isn’t usually a recipe for success, as the Terrapins’ opponent Saturday can attest. Maryland forced six turnovers against West Virginia in a 37-0 rout last season in Baltimore, a victory that ended the Terrapins’ seven-game losing streak to the Mountaineers.
Maryland coach Randy Edsall found solace Saturday in his defense’s ability to keep South Florida from converting turnovers into points, except for a fumble returned for a touchdown. But he also knows a repeat of such a performance is unlikely to end well.
“We can’t expect to win if we turn the ball the over that many times, or even two times, three times,” Edsall said. “You can’t do it. It’s something we talk about, stress. We’ve done more work in terms of putting them through the blaster. We’ll do what we have to do, but they have to understand you can’t limit your possessions by almost 50 percent.”
Nonetheless, the Terps (2-0) survived their trip to Tampa, and this week welcome the improved Mountaineers (1-1) to Byrd Stadium. Cutting down on miscues is a clear priority as Maryland seeks back-to-back 3-0 starts for the first time since doing so three times in a row from 1978 to 1980.
“After a game with six turnovers, you don’t win too many of those,” sophomore tight end Andrew Isaacs said. “But to get a chance to win like that, you’re happy. We just don’t want to have it happen again so this week. We put a lot of emphasis on making sure we take care of the ball and make sure we do the right things.”
Those fundamentals have been the bedrock of what Edsall has emphasized since he arrived at Maryland in 2011.
“Our No. 1 goal is to not beat ourselves, and that’s all we did last week,” Brown said. “Luckily we came out on top.”
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