This past week, the Maryland football team discussed putting its loss to Ohio State behind it and bouncing back this week. Except the exact opposite happened.
Maryland needed its defense to make one more stop to force overtime, but the Terps could not do that. Illinois wide receiver Casey Washington made a huge catch over Maryland’s defensive back Corey Coley Jr. along the Illinois sideline, moving the ball into Terps territory. The Illini made a couple more big plays to push the ball into field goal range.
Kicker Caleb Griffin nailed a 43-yard field goal as time expired, giving Illinois (3-4) the walk-off 27-24 win and sending Maryland (5-2) to a second consecutive loss.
“It’s going to be us versus us and we didn’t play very well in any of the three phases,” Terps head coach Michael Locksley said. “… Our standard doesn’t change when we win or when we lose.”
Maryland faced a key third-and-6 from the Illinois 29-yard line late in the fourth quarter when down, 24-21. Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis called a run despite the running game not working for the majority of the game. The Illini defense read the play, tackling running back Antwain Littleton II for a 1-yard loss. The Terps settled for a field goal to tie the game at 24 with 1:31 left.
“I can’t tell you exactly what happened other than we didn’t block it very well,” Locksley said. “We didn’t make the play on third-and-medium, which we have to be able to do.”
Let’s take a deeper dive into Maryland’s loss to Illinois.
The Terps were held under 100 yards rushing for the first time all year.
Entering the weekend, Illinois had allowed 176 rushing yards per game, the most in the Big Ten. The Terps could not exploit this weakness, only gaining 93 yards on the ground. Running back Roman Hemby led the team with 70 yards on 12 carries, but the Terps only averaged 3.2 yards per carry. Maryland had been averaging 4.7 yards a carry entering the Illinois game.
While the Terps struggled to run the ball, the Illini racked up 131 yards on the ground led by Kaden Feagin (84 yards).
“When we have to play this catch-up game … or when we are trying to chase the other team it’s like we sometimes throw ourselves off,” Hemby said.
Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was sacked three times, a new season high.
Four key Terps starters missed the game with an injury, including offensive lineman Corey Bullock. Without Bullock the starting offensive line consisted of DJ Glaze, Amelio Moran, Aric Harris, Gottlieb Ayedze and Conor Fagan. Mike Purcell and Kyle Long also saw some snaps.
Illinois sacked Tagovailoa three times. The quarterback had been really good at avoiding sacks this season and getting the ball out if he couldn’t find an open receiver, but he struggled in that regard against Illinois.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Maryland’s offense faced a third-and-5 at midfield. Illinois’ outside linebacker Seth Coleman ran around Fagan and managed to trip up Tagovailoa just enough for him to fall down, forcing Maryland to punt in a big spot.
Illinois excelled in the return game.
While Illinois did not score any points off its kick and punt returns, they set up drives well. Illinois had returns of 24, 31 and 43 yards. (Isaiah Williams had 55 yards on his two punt returns.) Prior to this game, teams were averaging 0.8 yards on punt returns against the Terps.
Maryland struggled with end-of-half execution again.
Once again, Maryland did not perform well late in the first half. As the Terps were driving for a 14-7 lead, wide receiver Kaden Prather fumbled the ball. Kenenna Odeluga recovered the fumble, giving Illinois the ball back with 1:37 left in the half.
Illinois marched all the way down the field but initially appeared content to kick a field goal on fourth-and-1 from the Maryland 2-yard line. After a Terps timeout, the Illini brought out the offense. Feagin got the ball and a pile of offensive linemen pushed him into the end zone, tying the game at 14 right before halftime.
“It’s always deflating to give up a score,” linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II said. “… They have playmakers as well, so it’s all about bouncing back, how are we going to respond.”
Maryland hoped to steal the possession back with an onside kick to start the second half. Illinois recovered it and turned that possession into a touchdown, taking a 21-14 lead before the Terps offense could touch the ball in the second half.
Now Maryland will turn to its bye week and assess what went wrong in this game. The bye week gives the Terps a chance to get healthy and regroup before the rest of the season.
“We’re also taking a look at all the things we do offensively, defensively, special teams and get this season back on track,” Locksley said.
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