COLLEGE PARK — Iowa easily ended whatever slim hopes Maryland had of making its fourth-straight bowl game with a grinding, 29-13, win over the Terrapins on Saturday afternoon.
Hawkeyes running back Kaleb Johnson added to his Big Ten-leading rushing total, crossing the century mark before halftime and finishing with 164 yards and his 21st rushing touchdown of the season. Backup Kamari Moulton added 114 of his own as well as a score.
Iowa (8-4, 6-3 Big Ten) was without quarterbacks Brendan Sullivan and Cade McNamara due to injuries, but sophomore walk-on Jackson Stratton acquitted himself well when necessary in his first collegiate start, completing 10 of 14 for 76 yards. Hawkeyes kicker Drew Stevens was a perfect 5 for 5 on field goals, with three coming from 49-plus yards out.
“I thought he made a couple of mistakes in the run game,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said of Sullivan, “but it’s a matter of they were able to rush the ball to take the pressure off of him. That’s a veteran line, a veteran group.”
Maryland QB Billy Edwards Jr. left the game after the Terrapins’ second drive, replaced by MJ Morris. Edwards wore a glove and wrist wrap on his right throwing hand for the first time all season, but seemed consistently bothered by it, tugging at and adjusting it after every snap before exiting.
“Billy’s banged up. I mean, he’s been banged up for about two, three weeks now, and then, a week ago, the thumb affected him,” Locksley said. “This week, he didn’t throw the ball until Thursday. I think he took a lot of the reps, but we just kind of tried to rest the thumb to give him a chance.”
Morris didn’t make much of a difference, as Iowa out-gained Maryland 200-65 in the first half and chewed up nearly 23 minutes of game clock, while the Terrapins didn’t cross midfield. Edwards would return to start the second half but left in the third quarter after a hard hit on a rush up the middle. Morris threw two second half touchdowns to Tai Felton, but interceptions on back-to-back plays late ended Maryland’s comeback effort.
“Yeah, we just started off very slow,” Felton said. “We know Iowa. They’re a possession team, so I think it was like 22 minutes [to] 6 minutes. So we kept getting off the field very quick. We weren’t executing.”
The Terrapins (4-7, 1-7) posted season lows in total yards (227) and yards passing (129) in losing their fourth-straight game. Maryland’s loss also means it will not make it to a bowl game for the first time in three seasons.
“Tell me what being negative will do? What will being negative do? I just choose to not live my life that way,” Locksley said. “If I felt sorry for myself and was negative about everything I’ve had to endure as a person, I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you. And so it’s my job to model that for my team.”
Iowa fans nearly outnumbered Maryland supporters on a blustery Senior Day in College Park, and Johnson showed his dominance for them early, gaining 15 yards on the first two plays of the game in a harbinger of what was to come.
Iowa consumed nearly 13 minutes of the first quarter on its two drives, handing the ball off 19 times for 89 yards. The Hawkeyes led 3-0 after the first, a lead that would have been more if not for a Kamari Moulton fumble inside the red zone on their first drive that was recovered by Maryland defensive back Jalen Huskey.
On its second drive of the second half — and after Iowa kicked another field goal to extend the lead to 16-0 — Maryland finally decided to emphasize the run.
Roman Hemby, Nolan Ray and Edwards combined to run the ball seven times on the drive for 49 yards, with Edwards rushing up the middle to the Iowa 2 before having to leave the game after a hard, helmet-jarring hit.
Morris finished the drive, scrambling to find Felton from 8 yards away for his eighth touchdown catch of the season and Maryland’s first points. After another Iowa FG to end the third quarter, the quarterback and receiver duo would connect again, this time from 12 yards out, to get Maryland within a touchdown, 19-13.
Iowa, which had been middling most of the second half, delivered the finishing blow four plays later. Moulton atoned for his earlier fumble with a cut-and-go 68 yard run to the house for a 26-13 Hawkeyes lead.
“It was just one of those ’damn’ moments, you know what I mean,” defensive lineman Donnell Brown said of the Moulton score. “Because we should have had them, but, you know, things happen.”
Morris went back-to-back in the opposite fashion, throwing interceptions on consecutive plays late in the fourth quarter to end Maryland’s chances.
“Offensively, we struggled, and then all of a sudden, we went on offense, and then our defense struggles,” Locksley said. “As the leader of this thing, this is what my job is: to figure those things out. And I’m more optimistic about being able to figure this out.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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