A Little More Fight, Same Old Result in Lincoln: Maryland Collapses Again Against Nebraska

By Charles Harris | Ravori Sports

Maryland football finally showed some fight.

Unfortunately for the Terps, they showed it for about one half.

Then came another collapse.

Maryland jumped on Nebraska early, built a 16-7 first-quarter lead and looked like a team determined to prove that last week's embarrassing 54-3 loss to UCLA was not who they were.

For a while, the Terps looked like the better football team.

Then the mistakes started piling up.

The blocked punt. The penalties. The turnovers. Malik Washington pressing and making another costly mistake. An offense that could not stay on the field. A defense that eventually ran out of gas.

And before Maryland knew it, a game the Terps appeared to control had become another blowout.

Nebraska scored 34 unanswered points after Maryland's last touchdown and walked away with a 48-23 victory Saturday in Lincoln. The loss dropped Maryland to 2-3 and 0-2 in Big Ten play while extending the Terps' losing streak to three games.

This is becoming more than a bad stretch.

This is becoming a pattern.

Maryland Actually Looked Good Early

The most frustrating part of this loss is that Maryland showed exactly what it is capable of doing.

The Terps came out aggressively and moved the football.

Malik Washington immediately connected with Chris Durr Jr. for a 36-yard completion. Durr later turned another Washington pass into a spectacular 65-yard touchdown, giving Maryland the lead.

The running game also received a major boost from the return of DeJuan Williams.

Williams ripped off a 56-yard run before scoring on a three-yard touchdown run, giving Maryland a 23-14 advantage with 8:54 remaining in the second quarter. He finished with 78 rushing yards on just 10 carries.

Maryland's offense had 300 yards in the first half.

The defense also forced an early turnover when Jamare Glasker intercepted Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandrea, giving the Terps possession at the Nebraska 19-yard line.

Everything was lining up.

Maryland was playing with energy. The offense was moving the ball. The defense was making plays.

And Nebraska looked stunned.

The Terps had the Cornhuskers exactly where they wanted them.

Then Maryland started beating itself.

The Blocked Punt Changed Everything

The first major turning point came when Nebraska blocked a Maryland punt and recovered it at the Terps' 19-yard line.

Mekhi Nelson quickly turned the short field into a touchdown.

That was the beginning of the unraveling.

Maryland had a chance to put Nebraska in a difficult position, but instead gave the Cornhuskers a short field and allowed them to turn special teams into seven points.

Against a good team, those mistakes are devastating.

Nebraska didn't need Maryland to hand them opportunities.

But Maryland kept doing it.

Head coach Mike Locksley acknowledged the importance of the sequence afterward, specifically pointing to the blocked punt, a late penalty on third-and-27 and the pick-six as a three-drive swing that changed the game.

That is exactly what happened.

Maryland had control.

Then Maryland gave it away.

Malik Washington Continues to Press

This is where the conversation about Malik Washington becomes unavoidable.

Washington finished 23-of-44 for 254 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. He also rushed for 16 yards.

The statistics aren't catastrophic by themselves.

The timing of the mistakes was.

Washington's first interception wasn't necessarily the deciding play, but his second interception was a disaster.

With Maryland still within striking distance, Nebraska's Dwayne McDougle III jumped the route and returned the interception 81 yards for a touchdown.

Pick-six.

Again.

After throwing four interceptions against UCLA, Washington now has another pick-six in consecutive games.

And this is where the quarterback's development and coaching intersect.

Washington looks like a quarterback who is pressing.

He appears to be trying to make something happen instead of allowing the offense to develop naturally. When the first read isn't there, he sometimes forces the football rather than moving through his progressions.

Against Nebraska, that became extremely costly.

He threw only 77 passing yards after throwing for 177 in the first quarter, and he failed to complete a pass during the second quarter according to the game breakdown.

That's not simply a quarterback problem.

That's a coaching problem too.

Maryland has to help Washington.

The coaches have to simplify things when necessary. They have to create easier throws. They have to get the quarterback into rhythm.

And Washington has to stop trying to win the game on every single throw.

Sometimes the right decision is the boring decision.

Take the checkdown.

Throw the ball away.

Move to the next read.

Live to play another down.

The Penalties Were Ridiculous

Both teams committed a ton of penalties.

Maryland was flagged 12 times for 115 yards.

Nebraska was penalized 16 times for 132 yards.

That's 28 combined penalties for 247 yards.

That is ugly football.

But Maryland's penalties were particularly damaging because they repeatedly extended Nebraska possessions.

The most painful example came when Maryland sacked Colandrea and appeared to have Nebraska facing third-and-27.

Instead, a late hit penalty gave the Cornhuskers a fresh set of downs.

Nebraska eventually scored.

That is unacceptable football.

You cannot get a defense into third-and-27 and then hand the opponent a first down because of a needless penalty.

Against Nebraska, those mistakes eventually became touchdowns.

Locksley admitted as much after the game.

He said Nebraska is a good football team and doesn't need help, adding that the execution and coaching problems were on him.

At least the head coach isn't hiding from it.

But eventually, accepting responsibility has to turn into fixing the problem.

Maryland's Defense Eventually Broke

It is easy to look at the final score and blame the defense.

I'm not doing that.

The Maryland defense was put in terrible situations repeatedly.

The offense couldn't stay on the field.

Special teams gave Nebraska a short field.

Washington threw a pick-six.

Penalties extended Nebraska drives.

By the second half, the defense was exhausted.

Nebraska finished with 209 rushing yards and 238 passing yards. Maryland had only 25 rushing attempts compared with Nebraska's 36, and the Cornhuskers controlled the clock for more than 34 minutes.

That matters.

A defense cannot continually defend short fields and extended drives and be expected to remain fresh for four quarters.

Maryland actually held Nebraska scoreless in the third quarter.

But the offense couldn't capitalize.

The Terps had the football for less than four minutes in the third quarter and generated almost nothing offensively.

Eventually the dam broke.

Nebraska scored 20 points in the fourth quarter.

That's when the game became a blowout.

Maryland Looked Tired in the Second Half

This was another troubling aspect of the game.

The Terps looked flat.

They looked tired.

And Nebraska looked like the team that had taken control physically.

Maryland's defense spent far too much time on the field, while the offense couldn't generate enough sustained drives to give the defense a break.

That's how a competitive game becomes a 25-point loss.

The Terps had 300 yards in the first half but couldn't maintain that production after halftime.

Nebraska outgained Maryland 409-188 after the first quarter, according to the postgame breakdown from WMUC Sports.

That is a dramatic change.

And it raises questions about conditioning,