A Sunday morning reflection: Maryland's defense has now surrendered 119 points in three games -- nearly 40 per contest.

I think that would have been the toughest part of the young season to predict since there were high hopes for the defense of new coordinator Don Brown. So what's happening? It may sound odd since it surrendered 32 points, but the defense did get more pressure yesterday during the 32-31* loss to Middle Tennessee.

Some of the blitz packages began to pay off. The defense recorded its first three takeaways of the season (two interceptions by Cameron Chism and a fumble recovery by Travis Ivey).

But the defense continues to give up what coaches call "chunk plays" -- those long, damaging ones. Those plays effectively negate any good work. Most costly of these was a 35-yard pass play that took the ball to the Maryland 10 in the game's final seconds and set up the game-winning field goal. It was the play of the game.

Chism, the sophomore cornerback who stepped in for Nolan Carroll, said afterward that he had hamstring soreness and couldn't accelerate. You can't put this loss on Chism, who was forced by Carroll's injury into playing the most extensive role of his young career. But if Chism really couldn't accelerate effectively, then he shouldn't have been in the game.

I think the entire defense was tired by the game's end, and that Chism got beat by a good stop-and-go fake, which he pretty much conceded.

Maryland desperately missed Carroll and injured safety Jamai McCollough yesterday, particularly on that final drive. More later today after Fridge's 4:30 media conference call...

 An earlier version of this entry incorrectly gave the score of Saturday's game. The Terps lost 32-31. The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.