Inconsistent Maryland finds footing in second-half comeback win over Charlotte

COLLEGE PARK — A pregame thunderstorm made a mess of SECU Stadium ahead of Maryland’s Saturday night matchup with Charlotte. 

When the rain cleared for kickoff, something was still a mess — Maryland’s offense.

Charlotte stunned Maryland early with a quick touchdown drive and an interception return for a score, but the Terrapins finally found consistency, scoring 29 second-half points in a 38-20 comeback win over the 49ers.

“Didn’t meet the standard today,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “Our standard is to start fast and finish strong, and we didn’t do either one of those two things, and we’re still able to come away with a pretty good win.

Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was intercepted for a touchdown on the Terrapins’ first offensive play, and Maryland only ran five offensive plays in the first quarter — three of those resulting in negative yardage. He finished with 236 yards on 25-of-36 passing with two interceptions and a touchdown in an unsettled performance.

“Nobody in the locker room was excited about how we played,” Locksley said. “But we overcame some adversity, early adversity, which kind of showed me that we’re the type of team that I thought we could be.”

Receiver Jeshaun Jones and running back Roman Hemby both hit century milestones: Jones his 100th career catch, Hemby his fifth career 100-yard rushing game. Both marks came in the second half, when Maryland found some semblance of a rhythm, after the 49ers punched them in the mouth amid a disjointed first quarter. 

Busted coverage in the left side of Maryland’s secondary left Charlotte receiver Jairus Mack wide open for a 48-yard touchdown on the first drive of the game. It ended the Terrapins’ streak without allowing an offensive touchdown at three-plus games.

After Hemby recovered his own fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Tagovailoa threw it right into the hands of the 49ers’ Demetrius Knight for the pick-six and a shocking 14-point lead. 

“They had drop-eight coverage, the [defensive] end was blocked outside of the flat guy. It was a poor decision on our quarterback’s part to throw it there,” Locksley said. “The ball should have went inside.”

Led by Biff Poggi, Charlotte (1-1) came in ready for a homecoming of sorts for the first-year coach. Poggi was the long-tenured coach at Gilman and St. Frances in Baltimore, and took former Maryland offensive coordinator Mike Miller with him to the 49ers, along with a plethora of former Terrapins and players he coached brought in via the transfer portal.

“Biff had his team ready to play,” Locksley said. “Obviously, they came in with a little chip on his shoulder when you have guys that used to be here. This was a big game for those guys coming back home and I gotta give credit to Biff and his staff for starting fast the way they did.”

The Terrapins (2-0) only managed nine first-half points on three field goals by Jack Howes. Two red zone opportunities were negated by penalties: An unnecessary roughness on Antwan Littleton after a run on first-and-goal and a suspect push-off call in the end zone on receiver Kaden Prather that negated a touchdown.

Locksley said the flag on Littleton led to a benching in the second half.

“We’re down at the four-yard line, and we get a personal foul because of the being emotional, and I said the only way you fix stuff like that is by what happened today. You put him on the bench,” Locksley said. “To me that’s how we’re gonna play this thing, and if guys don’t play to our standard, if we’re gonna have the dumb penalties, you’re gonna you’re gonna be on the bench.”

Trailing 14-9 at the half, Maryland’s ignominious start belied the outburst that was to come. Locksley noted that freshman tight end Dylan Wade was trying to get his teammates going on the sidelines, along with speeches in the locker room during the break from veteran receiver Jeshaun Jones and offensive lineman DJ Glaze.

“The defense was doing what they had to do. So I was just telling the guys, ‘Hey, it’s time. It’s our turn now,’” Glaze said. “So, just trying to get everybody ready, everybody on the same page as far as, hey, we can go do it.”

The Terrapins methodically marched on their first drive of the third quarter, with a Billy Edwards 1-yard quarterback sneak capping a nine-play, nearly 6:00 drive with a touchdown. The score and two-point conversion gave Maryland its first lead, 17-14. It was the first of four second-half touchdown drives from a Maryland offense that finally found sixth gear.

Hemby totaled a career-high 217 yards from scrimmage, 162 of them rushing, after only gaining 9 yards on the ground in the first half.

“I feel like in the first half I was a little antsy, and I was a little trigger happy just by being excited and being in the atmosphere,” Hemby said. “But I feel like I was able to settle in, and we were able to regroup at halftime, and I was able to make the plays that were there when I needed to make them the most”

Prather was able to get redemption as well, snagging the over-the-middle 40-yard touchdown pass from Tagovailoa as he slid down in the end zone to put Maryland up 31-14. After defensive lineman Donnell Brown perfectly high-pointed an interception off Charlotte quarterback Jalon Jones near midfield, Hemby capped off his record day with UMD’s final score: a cut off the left side for a clean, 15-yard touchdown.

“I feel like we were able to wear the defense out a little bit towards the end of the game, and I run behind a great offensive line, so I was able to just make some plays when I needed to make them,” Hemby said.

The adversity comes amid a short week for Maryland, with Virginia coming to College Park next Friday night for the schools’ first meeting in a decade.

“I did see those … bright spots of what of what this team was able to do today. But to me, I’d rather execute better, start faster, making sure that when we come out, we come out with the right type of energy and enthusiasm,” Locksley said. “We missed some tackles, we blew a coverage at the end. Those are the things that we got to get corrected pretty quickly here with Virginia coming into town.”