Maryland lost to Northwestern, 37-10, on Oct. 11 to drop to 3-3 overall and 0-3 in the Big Ten.
Following a 42-28 loss at Indiana two weeks ago, Maryland suffered another blowout conference loss but this time at home. The Terps have to quickly fix their issues with USC coming to town on homecoming on Oct. 19. Otherwise, they will drop to 0-4 in the conference.
“Today, we took a step back,” head coach Michael Locksley said. “We’re going to find a way to turn this frustration into something positive and productive this week. It starts with the next game.”
Maryland lost the big play and turnover battle against Northwestern. Wildcats sophomore quarterback Jack Lausch connected on three passes for 40-plus yards. Northwestern’s defense picked off a pass and recovered two fumbles, one of which was a scoop and score.
“Today we had, I think, three penalties. So we get that fixed,” Locksley said. “Now all of a sudden the turnovers show up, and we haven’t turned the ball over. And we made a big emphasis on that. The big plays are the ones that concern me.”
Maryland got off to another slow start — similar to its loss against Indiana — Northwestern took advantage of the Terps’ first-half mistakes. On their second drive, the Wildcats were helped by two Maryland penalties (fair catch interference and offsides) before Lausch connected on a 40-yard throw to sophomore receiver A.J. Henning. Lausch scrambled for a 9-yard touchdown run to go up 7-0.
Lausch found senior receiver Bryce Kirtz for another 40-yard completion to put the Wildcats in the red zone on their next drive. This time, senior running back Cam Porter rushed for a 3-yard touchdown.
Kirtz finished with 123 yards on three catches.
It went from bad to worse on the ensuing kickoff when Maryland redshirt freshman Ricardo Cooper Jr. fumbled, setting Northwestern up at the Maryland 23-yard line. The Terps’ defense held the Wildcats out of the end zone, but Northwestern put three on the board to increase its lead to 17-0.
Meanwhile, Maryland finished the half scoreless on four out of five drives and 2-for-7 on third down.
“It starts with me and making sure that I’m doing the things to jump-start us,” Locksley said.
Maryland’s lone touchdown came on a 16-play, 90-yard drive in the second quarter. The Terps were bailed out by a third-down defensive pass interference call, which set them up at the Northwestern 2-yard line. It took Maryland four downs, but junior quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. was able to sneak it in to make the score 17-7.
The Terps’ longest play of the night was a 27-yard completion from junior quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. to junior receiver Octavian Smith Jr.
“No, it’s not by design,” Locksley said of the lack of big plays. “We have an explosive group of skilled guys on offense. Our goal is to try to find ways to get them the ball to where they can make these explosives. … [Northwestern] did a really good job of containing the big plays. We had a ton of first downs and 6- and 5-yard runs and catches, but we weren’t able to make the one guy miss.”
Each team went scoreless in the third quarter, giving the illusion it would be a wild finish in the fourth quarter. Junior kicker Jack Howes made it a one-possession game at 17-10 to begin the final stanza, but the Terps did not score again for the rest of the game.
The rest of Maryland’s drives went as follows — fumble, turnover on downs, fumble, interception, turnover on downs — as Northwestern iced the game.
“It snowballed,” Locksley said. “The thing we always try to pride ourselves on is not looking at the scoreboard. We had two long drives. We get down in the red area and don’t come away with points. It’s demoralizing. When I talk about complementary football, it demoralizes you on defense when you don’t come away with the points that you expect to come away with.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics