Maryland stumbles on special teams, fades in second half to Wisconsin
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Version 0 of 1. Friends and family of the Maryland football team gathered in the Gossett Team House following Saturday’s 31-24 home loss to Wisconsin, providing warmth for players who filed one by one out of the team’s locker room. Some of them looked emotionally drained, and no one would blame them after the team’s sixth consecutive loss. The Terrapins continued to wander through the fog of a lost season, searching for a signature win that was within grasp but ultimately slipped away. This loss may be the most painful to handle when the Terrapins look back at this brutal year, because they outplayed Wisconsin in the first half and were tied at 17 as they entered the locker room to a modest ovation from a rain-soaked homecoming crowd announced at 44,678. Junior quarterback Perry Hills and the offense were moving the ball. Maryland had weathered several long plays on special teams, including a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. It wasn’t facing Wisconsin’s dynamic junior running back Corey Clement, who sat out the game with an injury, and it had held the Badgers’ vanilla quarterback, Joel Stave, to three completions in the first two quarters. But Maryland, as it has done all season, couldn’t get out of its own way once the second half started. So much of the turmoil on and off the field this season has revolved around the level Maryland aspires to reach in the Big Ten, and during the second half Wisconsin reminded the Terrapins of just how far they have to go to get there. [All the scores, stats and news from the weekend in college football] The Badgers, who have won five straight, made all the right adjustments. Hills had just two second-half completions and was completely bottled up on the ground, posting minus-14 yards rushing after running for a total of 398 yards in the previous three games. “If we want to be at that top level, we have to execute and keep that same energy and intensity,” Maryland defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson said. Interim coach Mike Locksley was disappointed with the lack of energy in his team during the first half of the previous week’s 31-15 loss to Iowa, but it was difficult to blame the players for being sapped. Aside from the commotion of a midseason coaching change, Saturday marked the fifth consecutive game in which Maryland faced a top-15 defense. Wisconsin’s defense was considered the most menacing of that bunch — it entered the day leading the country with just 11 points allowed per game — but initially Maryland gave the lumbering unit fits. The real issue for the Terrapins, at least in the first half, came on special teams. Maryland took a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter on running back Wes Brown’s seven-yard touchdown — the team’s first scoring play at Byrd Stadium in seven weeks. But Wisconsin’s Natrell Jamerson responded with a 98-yard touchdown return on the ensuing kickoff. To make matters worse, place kicker Brad Craddock dislocated a bone in has hand on the play, an injury that will require surgery, according to Locksley, who did not specify how much time the reigning Lou Groza Award winner might miss. [Postgame: Terps kicker Craddock suffers hand injury in loss] On the following possession, after Maryland’s defense had held on third down and one, Wisconsin faked a punt and picked up 61 yards to set up at the Terrapins 21-yard line. Wisconsin running back Dare Ogunbowale weaved his way for a touchdown run on the next play to make it 14-7. It was a deflating development given how inspired Maryland’s defense played in the first half, holding the Badgers to 94 total yards. Wisconsin made it 17-10 after a 28-yard field goal that was set up by a Hills interception midway through the second quarter, but the quarterback found redemption just before the half. He hit freshman D.J. Moore for a 40-yard touchdown pass that beat one-on-one coverage down the left sideline to tie the score at 17 with 49 seconds in the first half. But Stave (15-of-24 passing for 188 yards and one touchdown with one interception) looked like a different player in the second half. He completed 12 passes in the final two quarters, and his efficiency was highlighted during consecutive drives late in the third and into the fourth. He had completions of 20 and 22 yards to help set up a one-yard touchdown run by Alec Ingold to make it 24-17 with 5 minutes 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter, then topped that with a seven play, 71-yard drive that was capped when he found Ogunbowale on a seven-yard swing pass to make it 31-17 with about 14 minutes left. “We were stopping them, and then they switched to a passing attack and we just failed to make some plays on the ball,” Maryland safety A.J. Hendy said. Hills finished 6 of 16 for 107 yards and a touchdown with an interception and was eventually benched for Caleb Rowe in the fourth quarter. Rowe pulled Maryland within a touchdown with a 27-yard scoring strike to Levern Jacobs with 2:39 remaining, then watched from the sideline as Sean Davis recovered an onside kick a few moments later. For a few fleeting seconds, it had looked as if Maryland would have a chance to capture a watershed moment. But the play was nullified by an offside penalty. Locksley just shook his head and eventually retreated into the team’s somber facility. “The coaching staff is going to continue coaching these guys up,” Locksley said. “There won’t be any ounce of quit in us.” |