Mike Locksley on Maryland football's response, Malik Washington's INTs, third down offense

15 hours ago

4 min read

Everything head coach Mike Locksley said after Maryland football fell to 2-3 (0-2), this time following a 48-23 loss at Nebraska:

On Maryland’s efforts vs. Nebraska

“I thought our guys came to play this week. I can't complain about the effort and the energy we started the game with. Make no mistake about that. I thought they came and approached this game with the right mentality, but had way too many self-inflicted wounds. We had a three-drive swing there in the first half when we had opportunities that were there for us where we get the block punt, we give up a third-and-27 with a late penalty, and then we also had the pick-six. And when you play good teams like Nebraska, they don't need help. That's all coaching. That's execution. And that's on me, and I'm gonna continue to show up and do the work, the necessary work, until the results catch up. I thought our players really showed up. It was great to have Dejuan [Williams] back today. He helped us in the run game a little bit, but still, way too many self-inflicted wounds that we’ll get in tomorrow, get the film watch, get it looked at.

It starts with the third down, and for me, on the offensive side, didn't do a great job on third down. I thought on defense, like I said, the explosive plays showed up, and then to get a punt block. So, all three phases had their opportunities, and what we've got to do is get these guys to make the plays when they're there, and then we've got to coach better starting with me.”

On third down play calling on Malik Washington’s run, target to Dorian Fleming

“I can't say about those two particular plays. Depends on where we were in the game, but I can tell you the third down struggles come with execution, not just the players on the field, but also making sure we have a good plan because you can't go two weeks where you have what we call money down situations. And this week, we had the medians more than the extra long situations that we had a week ago and we didn't get the execution done. Whether it was the play call, whether it was the blocking, whether it was the playmakers making the plays on the perimeter.”

On Nebraska’s defense over final three quarters

“I think the big thing is as we were able to run the ball early in the game, some of the things where they were designed sweeps to our playmakers, where we get Chris Durr a couple touches. Once they started dropping coverage, and now we have to consistently run the ball. I don't think we ever consistently ran it. I knew that we had to be really good on P and 10. If you look at us on offense, when we're on track, meaning four more on P and 10, first and 10, the drive usually ends the way we want. And we still had way too many of those first and 10s where we didn't stay on track.”

What stuck out about Maryland’s response

“I think the big thing is they've really bought into – the DNA for Maryland football is we get up, no matter what happens. We're going to keep getting up. And that's part of their DNA that we've instilled. But I also think that they approached the work with the right mentality. This week, we were able to let a little air out of those guys, and I thought that we showed up. And as I told our team we got to keep doing the work, and the results [are] going to eventually catch up. I know the result and the goal is to win, but we just got to keep doubling down on the work.”

On Malik Washington’s two INTs

“Typically, when you throw interceptions, it's either you misread the coverage or sometimes they make a play. I can tell you that on the one they jump, they were doubling the slant, and with that coverage, we want to make sure we go to the other side where we have more advantageous matchups. I still think he made the right decision on one of the interceptions. We just got to get there a little quicker.”

How the offense did taking off Malik Washington’s plate

“I thought in the first half we did that because we were able to have some run game. Dejuan came in, had some explosive runs and that in itself takes pressure off of you. Our receivers got lined up a lot quicker. We took some of those things off Malik's plate of having to get the guys lined up. I thought we got lined up better. The point of emphasis is that we put in taking those things off his plate, but we still got to figure out how to win in situational football, on third down on offense. The last two weeks, we got to do a better job of putting a plan together and then we got to do a better job of getting executed.”

On Nebraska QB Anthony Colandrea

“And having played him, this is the third time we've played him. When he's the most dangerous is when drop back passing, when you're covering guys in the drop back passing game, and now keeping him in the pocket. If you allow him to run around, which we did today, rush for over 100 yards, most of them on breakdowns in the passing game, where we're playing zone coverage, there's a lot of space, we didn't keep him in the pocket. When we did keep him in the pocket, we forced him to make some tough throws. But I didn't think we did a great job of keeping him where we wanted him today.”

On growing from an execution perspective

“I think it starts with the third down on both phases. We just have not been where we need to be on third down consistently on either side of the ball. And then when you look at having a punt block, very few times when you have a kick blocked in a game where you give yourself an opportunity. And to me, we got to go back, make sure we're getting those things coached up, making sure that we have the right things called to ensure that we get a better result.”

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