Maryland football immediately found itself trailing 14-0 just three minutes into its game against Charlotte on Sept. 9, but behind a strong second-half surge, the Terps notched their 10th straight win against nonconference opponents, 38-20.
“Didn’t meet the standard today,” Maryland head coach Michael Locksley said. “Our standard is to start fast and finish strong. We didn’t do either of those things. … We overcame some early adversity, which kind of showed me that we’re the type of team that I thought we could be.”
Here are some other takeaways from the Terps’ second game of the season:
1. Maryland showed resiliency after an abysmal first quarter.
The first quarter could not have gone any worse for the Terps than it did on Sept. 9. Charlotte got the ball first and marched down the field, as a busted coverage led to the first touchdown surrendered by Maryland’s defense in its last three games dating back to last season. 49ers quarterback Jalon Jones found a wide open Jairus Mack down the right side of the field for a 48-yard touchdown.
The Terps’ offense struggled in the first quarter. Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa’s first pass of the game was picked off and returned for a touchdown, creating the 14-0 deficit. Maryland only generated 15 yards of offense during the first 15 minutes, leading to a few boos from the student section.
“I didn’t see anybody panic,” Locksley said. “… I don’t think I saw anybody looking at the scoreboard with [an] ‘oh, here we go again’ look that I’ve seen around here the last three to four years and to me it’s a testament to the locker room and the type of culture we have.”
After the rough first quarter, the Terps settled into the game. Maryland managed to rack up more than 500 yards of offense the rest of the way, while the defense allowed just 79 yards of offense in the second and third quarters combined.
2. Maryland’s running game was effective behind steady offensive line.
After mustering just 23 yards rushing in the first half, the Terps ran the ball 26 times in the second half. The run-heavy play selection worked, as Maryland accumulated 220 yards on the ground during the final 30 minutes.
Locksley rotated fewer offensive linemen against the 49ers than he did against Towson, and the starting offensive line of Conor Fagan, DJ Glaze, Corey Bullock and Amelio Morán helped running back Roman Hemby churn out a career night.
Hemby set a new career high in total yards with 217, finishing with 162 rushing yards and 55 receiving yards. Hemby ripped off runs of 40, 20, 24 and 15 yards. The 40-yard run was the first play coming out of halftime, setting the Terps up to take the lead.
“Just trusting the game plan,” Hemby said. “I feel like in the first half I was a little antsy, trigger happy. … We were able to regroup at halftime. I was able to make plays that I needed to make the most.”
Running back Colby McDonald saw some snaps in the second half, making the most of his carries on the Terps’ first drive of the fourth quarter. McDonald finished the game with eight carries for 73 yards and ripped off some huge runs, including a 23-yard touchdown run in which he was untouched.
“Open holes, he’s going to find it and hit it,” Glaze said. “We were just trying to move fast. We could see that they were getting tired a little bit so we used our strength, which is our tempo.”
3. Expect stronger discipline from the coaching staff for ill-advised penalties.
In the first half, the Terps left some points on the field despite driving into the red zone three times. Two penalties forced Maryland into field goals.
The biggest penalty of the game came on first-and-goal from Charlotte’s 7-yard line. Running back Antwain Littleton II carried the ball 2 yards and then was flagged for an unnecessary roughness penalty, pushing the Terps back 15 yards.
Littleton did not see any more snaps, giving way to McDonald’s big contributions in the fourth quarter.
“I’m tired of dumb penalties,” Locksley said. “I’m tired of us doing stuff after the whistle. The only way you fix stuff like that is putting him on the bench.”
Last season Maryland was the most penalized team in the Big Ten with 101 penalties, costing the Terps more than 900 yards. Maryland has been called for 10 penalties for 104 yards this season, including four penalties for 50 yards against Charlotte.
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