Maryland Terrapins Juice the Syracuse Orange, 34-20
By Cory Forsyth
Maryland Terrapins improve to 3-1 heading into conference play.
After allowing a Syracuse field goal early in the first quarter, Maryland took the lead with a beautiful 25-yard touchdown pass from C.J. Brown to Marcus Leak on the next drive and never looked back.
The scoreboard says Maryland won 34-20, but the statistics show that there is still a lot of work to be done heading into conference play.
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The most important stat of this game was the turnovers.
The Terps came up with an interception which was returned for an 88-yard touchdown by Will Likely.
Later in the second half, the Terps forced a fumble and were able to tack on three points off of a Brad Craddock field goal.
Maryland also was able to block a punt and score a touchdown on that possession.
Those three big plays gave Maryland 17 points. Maryland only won the game by 14. The hustle and “BY ANY MEANS” mentality of the Terps definitely showed today and it’s what got them the win.
Quarterback C.J. Brown got things going early through the air with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Leak. He also found his running back Brandon Ross on a short pass that turned into a 90-yard touchdown.
Brown ended the day with 16-26 with 280 passing yards. Syracuse did manage to demobilize the mobile quarterback and held him to 25 yards rushing on 14 attempts. Last week against West Virginia, Brown rushed 18 times for 161 yards and one rushing touchdown.
Maryland did have a surprise on the rushing side of the ball. Instead of Brandon Ross or Wes Brown leading the way, it was Jacquille Veii who lead the Terps in rushing with 42 yards on 8 attemps while also scoring a 4-yard touchdown.
Maryland’s kicker Brad Craddock is now 7/7 on the year with two field goals today and leads the nation in field goal percentage (100%).
For Syracuse, the Orange were led by quarterback Terrel Hunt who threw for 219 yards and rushed for a team high 156 yards and two touchdowns.
Maryland begins their Big Ten schedule next Saturday when they travel to Bloomington, IN to take on the Hoosiers at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1:30pm.