Terps Over Come Clemson, Refs to beat Tigers by 1, Spread by 18

I'm lucky that I don't have vocally record these blogs because I just don't have a voice. I screamed, yelled, and swore for ten minutes after the refs overturned that safety. I threw a chair too. That was a horrible call. I'm a fair fan who will admit when a call is OK against my team. That wasn't. That call could have cost Maryland the game. Terps fans should thank Sam Hollenbach that it didn't.

Sam Hollenbach looked the best I've ever seen him. On that last drive, he was threading a needle with some of the balls he threw. The last one to Joey Haynos (my homeboy) was beautiful. He had one interception on a misread late in the first half, but otherwise, he played beautifully. The pressure was on and he didn't falter in that last drive. Dan Ennis was cool as could be when he hit the game winning 31 yarder.

If we're going to talk about Hollenbach, we have to talk about the offensive line that protected him. He was sacked a few times, but the Clemson defensive line is pretty sick. Adams was going to get his sacks. Except for the one time in the second half when the Terps settled on a field goal after Hollenbach was sacked within the Clemson 10, they protected him well all game. Weren't you just expecting him to take a nasty sack on that final drive, like against Georgia Tech? Well, this is a different team than it was against Georgia Tech. It's a good team. On a day when the running game that Ralph Friedgen loves so couldn't get started, Sam Hollenbach took it upon himself and his receiving core to do enough to beat the Tigers.

However, the game ball should go to the defense. They didn't allow a touchdown all game. They gave up a few big plays, but they always came through in the end to give the offense, which struggled in the second half, a chance to win it all. This is the same defense that just allowed teams to beat them up on the line of scrimmage earlier this year. Josh Wilson had some huge solo tackles, including a touchdown saving tackle of James Davis. Although they didn't pick up any sacks on quarterback Will Proctor, they pressured him often forcing him to throw the ball away on big downs. Any defense that holds Clemson to just three field goals has had a good day.

Now, to the best part of running a blog -- the pointing out of people who were wrong.

Some dude named Tom commented on my prediction page that the final score would be 38 - 10 Clemson. Well, I learned today that random dudes who comment on blogs aren't always right. Then again, I didn't predict 13-12 either, but at least I picked the right winner. Of course, I'm just giving it back to someone who gave it to me. I encourage people to comment on my blog as much as they want and Tom knows that he just watched a frickin' thriller of a game.

The spread was 17 points favoring Clemson. See, Tom, Vegas doesn't know what's up either. No one talks about Maryland. They rattled off three in a row coming into this game and no one has taken notice. My prediction was if Maryland beat Clemson, they would be ranked next week. Now, we can wait and see if that's true.

No matter what the outcome of tonight's game between Wake and BC, the winner has to share the Atlantic lead with Maryland. Next week Maryland has Miami at home, another must win with BC and Wake waiting after that. If you fans don't know who to root for tonight in the Wake BC game, I say root for Wake. Maryland has a better shot of beating Wake at home over BC on the road. If BC wins tonight and Maryland loses to BC, it'll be BCs division to take. If Wake wins tonight, BC beats Maryland, but Maryland beats Wake, then it'll end it a three way tie.

Don't worry too much about all that now. Just take a day and realize that Maryland is one of the top teams in the ACC. The ACC isn't the conference it used to be, but it's still good -- better than the Big East. The Terps won a tough game on the road, where Clemson hasn't lost all year, and over came a bad call to still win the game. So sit back and enjoy the fact you're a Terps fan.