Maryland made Saturday a fight for almost 60 minutes, but it wasn’t enough as Penn State held a lead for nearly 52 minutes.
“Give credit to our opponent for how they played and competed, felt like we had plenty of opportunities to win the game today and as we continue to say each and every week, it's still about more what we do than it is what our opponents do and what our opponents have done,” head coach Mike Locksley said after the game. “The good news, it’s correctable, it’s something that we need to continue to get corrected. I thought the fight was there, I thought our kids competed for four quarters but we just continue to make mistakes at the most inopportune times.”
The inopportune mistakes came in the red zone for the Terps as the offense came away with 14 points on five attempts. On the first attempt, Taulia was sacked on third down to pin the offense out of field goal range, while a pair of turnovers proved costly in a game that was seemingly always within reach. “We had five opportunities in the red zone come away with two touchdowns and have turnovers down there, couldn't get on the field on third down but we had opportunities. You know, the challenge for us is, you know, our players that we feel are playmakers for us have to find ways to make plays when they're available and we didn't get that done today.”
The Terps were largely able to control Penn State’s offense and limited them to two touchdowns through three quarters, helping to set up the game-tying touchdown by Corey Dyches in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter. The tied game didn’t last long as it was none other than Penn State receiver Jahan Dotson who broke away for an 86-yard touchdown on the Nittany Lion’s second play from scrimmage. Dotson picked apart the Terps’ secondary for 242 yards and three touchdowns on 11 catches, breaking Penn State’s single-game receiving record in the process, as the Terps’ defense had no answer to contain him.
“He's a big-time player that makes plays that were available to him. Would I like to see us in better leverage position to cover him? No doubt. He caught us in a couple of zone coverages. The first one was the double move when we were in zone. The next one was again, we were in zone coverage and they ran a similar concept but then when we went man and we have a challenging receiver like that, take away the leverages that don't allow the ball to be thrown inside and those are things we got to get correct.”
Even with Dotson’s big day, the Terps were in a tightly contested through the first 57 minutes as quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa turned to tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo frequently. The veteran tight end finished with a career-high 12 catches for a team-high 85 yards and while still responsible for the drops across the tight end and receiver room, proved an integral piece of the passing attack. Okonkwo accounted for 27 of the 56 yards on the drive that tied the game at 14 apiece, adding to a career day for the vet. “It was just in the game plan. We just felt like that was working so we just kept on going back to it," he said afterward.
Maryland also had a new starting offensive line against Penn State, shifting Spencer Anderson to center and inserting DJ Glaze at right tackle. It’s a move they practiced earlier in the week after Glaze rotated in at left and right tackle during the Indiana win last weekend. “Delmar Glaze, DJ has been one of those guys that we've continued to develop throughout the course of the season and has played at a really high level. You know, Aric [Harris] being a junior college transfer, we thought that he's starting to maybe hit a little bit of a wall, he’s a little banged up, struggled to maintain kind of some of the, you know, when you have a quarterback the size of [Taulia Tagovailoa], we want to be firm in the middle of our protection.”
The Terps weren't able to generate the offensive balance that Locksley referenced earlier in the week, but the passing attack was capable of shouldering the load once the Terps found their groove. Still, the miscues denied the Terps a win as Maryland battles for win number six.
“All these losses suck. They all suck and this one is disappointing. We had opportunities. Again, I'll get Penn State credit, but I'll take the brunt of the blame that we didn't get the things accomplished we needed to win. It was a competitive game. Our team continues to be competitive, they continue to fight and play with great effort but the winning formula is not turn the ball over and winning the big play battle and we didn't do that today.”
Maryland will travel to Michigan State next weekend for a 4 PM kickoff. The Spartans are coming off a 40-29 road loss to Purdue.