COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland (2-0) obliterated No. 21 Syracuse (1-1), 63-20, Saturday afternoon at Maryland Stadium.

The Terrapins, coming off a 79-0 blasting of Howard, an FCS team, in Week 1 kept right on pace, hanging 42 points and 397 yards in the first half. For an SU defense coming off a shutout of Liberty, the performance was as shocking as it was demoralizing. 

Syracuse’s offense only showed marginal improvement from a week ago, but nowhere near the growth needed to keep pace with Maryland’s attack. 

Here are three reactions from Syracuse’s very bad day in Maryland. 

Disastrous defense

Syracuse’s defense, which finished 2018 on a tear and looked to continue its momentum into 2019, got mauled a week after shutting out Liberty. 

Maryland’s offense moved at will for the entire game, only getting stopped once in the first half. Quarterback Josh Jackson had time to sit in the pocket and find his wideouts getting ridiculously open against an SU secondary that, at times, looked lost. 

On Maryland’s second-to-last touchdown of the first half, which made it 35-13, defensive back Antwan Cordy bit on a Terrapins wideout sitting down in the flat, letting the inside receiver run wide open behind him. Andre Cisco, the safety, was nowhere near the play and Jackson made the easy completion. 

In the run game, the Terrapins went wild, drawing back to SU’s struggles defending the run early last season. Tailbacks Anthony McFarland and Javon Leake scored, including Leake’s 64-yarder to the house in the third quarter. McFarland finished the first half with three touchdowns. 

The Syracuse defense that shutout Liberty while holding the Flames to a negative rushing total a week ago couldn’t consistently generate pressure and struggled to defend the run and stick to assignments in the passing game. It cost them to the tune of 652 yards, 63 points and a big loss.

Tommy DeVito: Not much better, no worse than before

Syracuse’s newly anointed starting quarterback struggled in his first career start last week, throwing for fewer than 200 yards and two interceptions while not finding the end zone. 

DeVito did better on Saturday, tossing three touchdowns to go with 330 yards passing while completing nearly 72% of his passes. He still had two turnovers, struggled to feel the rush and could never get the Orange’s offense going against a feisty Maryland defense. 

DeVito did throw for multiple touchdowns on Saturday, finally finding the end zone and starting to establish chemistry with his receivers with game reps. But again, the turnover bug bit DeVito and cost SU. Twice he turned it over in the SU half of the field and twice Maryland scored touchdowns on the ensuing drive. 

In the first quarter, DeVito climbed the pocket and began rolling to his right. As he stepped toward the SU sideline, setting his feet to throw, a Maryland lineman hit him from behind, jarring the ball out and giving the Terrapins possession on the SU 32-yard line. Six plays later Maryland scored a touchdown.

In the second quarter, DeVito again rolled right from a collapsing pocket but no defender gave chase. He neared the sideline and spotted wideout Nykeim Johnson down the boundary. He tried to rifle a throw in, but Johnson had appeared to give up on the play, possible expecting DeVito to run or throw it away. Instead, DeVito tried to muscle it through and had it intercepted deep in Syracuse territory. Maryland found the end zone soon thereafter. 

DeVito played fine on Saturday, even improving from a week ago. He was by no means the reason Syracuse won against Liberty and definitely not why they lost to Maryland. But for SU to ascend to higher heights and avoid getting pounded by teams like Maryland, DeVito must play better. 

ESPN’s College GameDay is going anywhere but Syracuse

As late as 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning, next weekend’s primetime matchup between defending national champion Clemson and Syracuse was optimistically pegged as the likely landing spot for ESPN’s Saturday morning staple programming. 

Even on the air, the crew of GameDay mentioned going to central New York, Lee Corso throwing in that he wanted to visit Syracuse and a “Go Orange!” By about 1 p.m. Saturday, it was clear GameDay would be headed elsewhere. 

The Terrapins steadily dismantled the Orange and any hopes of hosting the marquee event on campus for the first time went away with any of SU’s chances of moving to 2-0. 

Instead, GameDay will probably be in Iowa next weekend — another first-ever location for the show — for the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry. 

Go ahead and sleep in next Saturday, Syracuse fans.

Published on September 7, 2019 at 3:37 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham