COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Though it appeared to be nothing more than another early-season blowout for Maryland, there was reason to believe the Terrapins may ultimately benefit from the fashion in which the victory was secured.Michal Cekovsky scored 16 points in his third career start, Jaylen Brantley added 14 in a reserve role and Maryland eased past Howard 79-56 Wednesday night.Cekovsky went 8 for 9 from the floor in tying his career high for points, set earlier this season against Kansas State. The 7-foot-1 junior also blocked three shots.Cekovsky started at center for senior Damonte Dodd, who has a sprained left MCL and will be sidelined for at least two more games before being re-evaluated. Dodd leads the team with 17 blocked shots.I talk to Ceko more than anybody and coach him harder than anybody on the team, coach Mark Turgeon said. Theres a lot of potential there. He can really score. Hes one of our better defenders, but his timing is not there yet.Thats because the Slovakian is still working his way back from a foot injury that sidelined him for the first four games.Brantley, meanwhile, drilled four 3-pointers on a night the Terrapins received just 10 points from standout guard Melo Trimble.Weve got good players, weve got good scorers, Turgeon said. Of all three years since hes been here, I think he trusts these guys the most.Maryland (9-1) led by seven at halftime, upped the margin to 17 with 15:57 remaining and cruised to the finish.Hopefully, tonight gives a lot of guys confidence and we become a deeper basketball team, Turgeon saidWe were much better in the second half, Turgeon conceded.Charles Williams scored 21 for Howard (1-6) and Solomon Mangham had 16.Howard was without high-scoring guard James Daniel, who has yet to play this season because of sprained left ankle. He led the NCAA in scoring last season, averaging 27 points per game, and was the player of the year in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.To make matters worse, leading scorer James Miller was injured early in the game and finished with no points on 0-for-5 shooting.Obviously, when Miller went out, it was deflating to our group of guys, coach Kevin Nickelberry said. He thought he could go but he just couldnt.Maryland led 18-13 before Mangham scored nine straight points to put the Bison up 22-19. Minutes later, a layup by Cekovsky and a 2-pointer by Trimble sparked an 11-0 run that helped the Terrapins take a 38-31 lead at the break.Early in the second half, Cekovsky made a layup and a dunk in a 7-0 spurt that enabled Maryland to move in front 47-33.In the second half we really shot the ball, turned the ball over less, the defense was better and our rebounding was good, Turgeon said.INSIDE OUTThe plan for Maryland was to work the ball inside and shoot the 3 after the defense sagged. So what happened? Fourteen of the Terps first 19 shots were from long range.We watched a lot of film and one of our keys was to play inside out, Turgeon said. Our guys werent doing it. That was the disappointing part. I had to go in at halftime and yell.Maryland scored 18 points in the paint over the final 20 minutes and shot 53 percent from the floor.THE BIG PICTUREHoward: The Bison are simply trying to hang in there until Daniel returns. The 5-foot-10 senior is expected to be out for another 2/3 weeks.Maryland: Turgeon went deep through his bench to get playing time for 10 players in the first half alone. If nothing else, the Terrapins learned how to play well together and effectively without help from Trimble, their go-to guy in virtually every tight situation.UP NEXTHoward: The Bison face their fourth straight Washington-area opponent, George Washington, on Saturday night.Maryland: The Terrapins are at home Saturday afternoon against St. Josephs, which lost to Houston Baptist 62-47 Wednesday. Cheap Authentic Ultra Boost .25 million option on reliever Jose Veras. Adidas Ultra Boost Wholesale . 10 Texas A&Ms offence dominated as usual against SMU. http://www.cheapauthenticultraboost.com/ . -- Adam Snyder returned to the San Francisco 49ers this season because the offensive lineman thought it was his best opportunity to win a championship. Adidas Ultra Boost Sale .Y. -- Leading 3-0 with only 11:25 left, the Colorado Avalanche committed a seemingly meaningless penalty to give the New York Islanders a power play. Adidas Ultra Boost China Wholesale . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. Often in this space well explore the work of someone who had an exceptionally poor performance QBR-wise, or look at why an opponent adjustment may be helping or hurting a QBs numbers. So why are we looking this week at Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford, who had an above-average opponent-adjusted QBR of 66.1 in Sundays win over the Eagles? The reason is that Stafford also happened to possess the highest NFL passer rating of the week at 135.0. Lets take a look at what differentiates Total QBR from Staffords traditional passer rating:Dont forget about the fumbleStaffords passing numbers (19 of 25, 180 yards, 3 TD) last week were fairly impressive. He completed 76 percent of his attempts and threw for three scores without an interception -- all good things. But one area the NFL passer rating fails to account for is when a QB fumbles, yet fumbles are often a big part of the picture of a quarterbacks day.Stafford was responsible for only one turnover, a fumble lost, but it was a potentially costly one. With the Lions up by four and operating at their own 12-yard-line midway through the third quarter, Stafford lost control of the ball while trying to maneuver within the pocket. Officially, the play is recorded as a sack, and the fumble was recovered by the Eagles at the 16, setting them up with a chance to pull within a point with a field goal or take the lead. To put it in terms of their win probability, Detroit went from a 62 percent chance to win before the play to a 50 percent chance after -- a loss of 12 percentage points.Staffords QBR fell from 90.5 to 81.0 on the play though his NFL passer rating was unchanged, underscoring the incomplete nature of the latter metric.Sacks matter tooIn addition to the aforementioned sack-and-fumble, Stafford took three other sacks.dddddddddddd The first came on the play just before the lost fumble. That, along with a damaging unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Anquan Boldin, is what helped set the Lions back to their own 12.Staffords other two sacks both came on third downs in the fourth quarter. The first turned a third-and-7 at the Eagles 38 (on the verge of field goal range) into a fourth-and-16 and a punt, dropping his QBR from a 76.5 before the play to a 67.5 afterward. His final sack came on a third-and-goal from the Eagles 5. Not nearly as detrimental as the lost fumble or moving out of field goal range, but it also wasnt a positive and did make the ensuing field goal attempt slightly more difficult for his kicker.None of these plays were accounted for in his NFL passer rating.How penalties improved Staffords numbersPenalties are one area NFL passer rating overlooks and QBR accounts for, and in this case it was actually beneficial to the latter number for Stafford. He was able to draw a defensive offsides call and a pair of defensive pass interference flags, and while none were huge gains for him, QBR does account for these plays.In the end, the largest differentiators between Staffords QBR and his passer rating were the four sacks and the turnover. If we look at just his 25 passing attempts, his raw QBR would have been an 81. But losses incurred from those damaging plays get us to his final number of 66.1, highlighting the magnitude negative plays can have on a game.A look at Staffords week-to-week progression in the QBR realm: cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '