Maryland football tumbles in late collapse, handed first loss of the season to Washington Huskies, 24-20

jmcconn3
Oct 4
4 min read

Maryland football matched up with the Washington Huskies in their first-ever meeting between the two, while the Terps collapsed in the fourth quarter to end their undefeated season with a loss with a score of 24-20.

This loss was quite the unfamiliar territory for a young squad. Head Coach Mike Locksley hopes this will be a learning moment for this team in the future.

“There’s a lot of guys that for the first time, they’ve got to look at themselves, like I had to as a head coach,” Locksley said. “What we didn’t do is finish, and to me that’s the part now the lesson I got to get taught of finishing and the importance of how you finish.”

This game was a tale of two halves for Maryland.

Maryland’s defense came out swinging with the crowd in the first half, limiting Washington’s production, holding the Huskies to a total of 100 yards and no points on the board. The Terps defense came up critical with two huge fourth-down stops, which could have been two scoring plays for two field goals at least for the Huskies.

Malik Washington and company did their part to maintain a comfortable 13-0 lead on the offensive side of the ball in the first half, but their lead could’ve been larger. Maryland was forced to put up three points twice on the board from Kicker Sean O’Haire while being either inside the redzone or just outside of it.

“I think we just take it, watch the tape back and get mistakes corrected and then move onto the next week,” Washington said.

The Terps would run into trouble on defense later on, losing one of their x-factors in Sidney Stewart, their freshman defensive lineman. Stewart was disqualified on a targeting call with time ticking down in the first half. He will avoid missing the first half of next week’s game since the disqualification came in the first half, not the second per NCAA rules.

“It was a big impact for sure,” junior linebacker Daniel Wingate said. “Sidney Stewart is a great player that contributes to our d-line, but you know, we need to have a next man mentality, and the next guy needs to be able to step up.”

Malik Washington would come out of the half firing, marching the Terps to an opening drive touchdown, throwing to the junior tight end AJ Szymanski for his first career touchdown. This would extend their cushion to a 20-0 lead.

The Huskies would eventually join the scoring party to get their first points on the board. Instead of going for it on fourth down, they settled for a 36-yard field goal to hopefully look for any sort of momentum.

The momentum would pick up for the Huskies as they opened the fourth quarter. After an unsportsmanlike call was pinned on the Junior defensive back Dontay Joyner, the Huskies were in prime position to score. The penalty would put the Huskies on the three-yard line and immediately got a touchdown on the following play, cutting even more into their deficit to make the score 20-10 with plenty of football to still be played.

“I’m not going to get into the judge and referees, I’ll let y’all do that,” Locksley said. “I know this, everybody in the country does the seatbelt stuff. Those aren’t the reason we won or lost this thing. We got to take care of business on the field.”

The Terps offensive slump would continue, with their first three-and-out of the game, stalling any chance of getting their own momentum. It would not take long for the Huskies to continue to chip away at the lead.

Quarterback Demond Williams Jr. would connect with the freshman wide receiver Dezmen Roebuck for a 34-yard touchdown. The Huskies just continued to chip away at the lead. Here comes the Huskies.

Nothing was working for the Maryland offense, no production or chances to get into scoring position.

“I left some stuff out there, some moments where I feel like I kind of broke the pocket a little earlier instead of sitting there and waiting and delivering,” Washington said. “There was opportunities for plays made, touchdowns to be scored, costly turnovers for a half that I have to improve on.”

The game is flipped upside down now.

The Huskies continued to power their will down the field, doing enough to take the lead with a one-yard rushing touchdown from senior running back Jonah Coleman to take the lead 24-20 with 3:21 left to play.

Maryland would have the chance to respond. The Terps would get all the way down to the 43-yard line for a 4^th and 8 attempt with 1:49 left to play. Washington could not connect to Smith Jr. and that would essentially seal the game for a massive collapse for the Terps.

Washington does not believe that this will be their defining moment and plans to come back stronger for the rest of the season from this loss.

“You know, we have to face adversity sometimes to come out even stronger,” Washington said. “We’re going to find a way to look aside and keep moving forward.”

Related Links