There’s really no denying how difficult the past seven days were in College Park. With the situation involving former head coach DJ Durkin and the media whirlwind that followed, it was tough to focus on football.

Still, Maryland had to take the field against Michigan State on Saturday. Defensively, the Terrapins played well enough to win. On the other side of the ball, however, the Terps couldn’t make enough big plays, losing 24-3.

After the game, interim head coach Matt Canada talked about the challenge this week presented to the team. He didn’t make any excuses for not beating the Spartans, though.

“This week was a challenging week, that’s a fact. You guys all know that,” Canada said after the loss. “But we came in, we worked every day. Our kids played hard every day. Tuesday, things happened. Wednesday, things happened. Thursday, 7:45, we were in there meeting and we were in there working.

Maryland’s offense totaled just 100 yards in the game and picked up only nine first downs. The Terrapins also had two costly turnovers.

It was a turbulent week in College Park, one that saw plenty of backlash from the media and a riff among players. And somehow, through most of the game, Maryland had opportunities to win.

“So proud of our players. We focused on each other,” Canada said. “Again, we lost today because we didn’t play well enough. We played a really good football team. I didn’t coach well enough.”

Maryland moves ahead to next week to try and reach bowl eligibility. The Terrapins travel to Bloomington to take on Indiana.