Terps football falls in overtime to Rutgers
QB among 4 starters ruled out before season finale
COLLEGE PARK — The Maryland football team secured its first win of the season in October when Minnesota’s kicker missed a game-tying extra point in overtime.
Its last setback of the regular season will be remembered for a wayward kick in overtime, too.
Sophomore kicker Joseph Petrino’s 50yard field-goal attempt would have tied the score and sent Saturday’s regular-season finale into a second overtime period. Instead, the kick sailed wide left, and the short-handed Terps allowed visiting Rutgers to leave Maryland Stadium with a 27-24 win.
“To lose any game is disappointing, but to lose in that fashion hurts you even a little bit more,” sophomore quarterback Eric Najarian said. “There are some things we’ve got to get cleaned up, and we’ll do that on Monday.”
The loss prevented the program from earning its first win in a home game to finish the regular season since 2016. It also spoiled a remarkable debut by Najarian, who replaced starter Lance LeGendre in the second quarter.
Najarian — and LeGendre — played significant minutes because usual starter, sophomore Taulia Tagovailoa, was ruled out before the game along with three other starters for medical reasons, according to a team spokesman.
Coach Mike Locksley did not confirm or refute a report by 247sports.com that Tagovailoa and junior inside linebacker Chance Campbell, a Towson resident and Calvert Hall graduate, did not play because they had tested positive for the coronavirus.
“I don’t comment on medical stuff,” Locksley said. “They were just unavailable players for us today.”
Besides Tagovailoa and Campbell, the
Terps were forced to play without freshman middle linebacker Ruben Hyppolite II and junior cornerback Jakorian Bennett.
They also did not have defensive coordinator Jon Hoke or special teams coordinator George Helow, and Locksley announced that cornerbacks coach Henry Baker called the plays on defense.
Tagovailoa had started the Terps’ first four games, completing 61.5% of his passes for 1,011 yards and seven touchdowns, and rushing 25 times for 44 yards and two scores. Tagovailoa had talked to the media on Tuesday, but Locksley said he learned Friday morning Tagovailoa would be sidelined.
Campbell led the defense in tackles with 43 and solo stops with 22 and had collected 1
1⁄ sacks and one fumble recovery for a
2
touchdown.
Hyppolite was tied for fifth in tackles with 18 and had recorded two sacks. Bennett had six tackles and two pass breakups.
LeGendre made his first start of the season at quarterback, sophomore Fa’Najae Gotay started at middle linebacker and sophomore Deonte Banks started at cornerback.
Despite their absences, Maryland had a shot at cementing a victory. After five lead changes, Najarian hit junior wide receiver Brian Cobbs on third-and-19 for a 52-yard touchdown. Cobbs, who set career highs in both receptions (five) and yards (99) and caught his first touchdown pass, gave the Terps a 24-21 lead with 5 minutes, 57 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The defense stopped the Scarlet Knights on fourth down, handing the ball back to the offense at its own 42-yard line with 3:14 remaining. But Maryland went conservative, calling three straight running plays while Rutgers used three timeouts to give its offense another chance with 2:56 left.
The Scarlet Knights marched 61 yards on 11 plays, and with the clock ticking toward zero, junior kicker Valentino Ambrosio — who had missed a 35-yard field goal in the second quarter — converted a 39-yarder to send the game into overtime.
In the extra session, Rutgers moved one yard on 11 plays, but Ambrosio made a 42-yard field goal to give his team the 27-24 lead. The Terps opened their possession with a 10-yard run by senior running back Tayon Fleet-Davis, but redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jeshaun Jones was flagged for an illegal block.
Three plays later, Najarian was sacked by senior defensive end Mike Tverdov for a 5-yard loss, forcing Petrino to attempt the 50-yard field goal thatwould have been the second-longest of his career.
Najarian, a walk-on who had never attempted a pass before Saturday, completed13 of 24 throws for 224 yards and two touchdowns — with 174 yards and both scores occurring in the second half. He said until Friday he had been working primarily with the scout team.
“It’s always a special moment,” he said of getting inserted into the game. “You kind of have to stay ready. So there’s not much time to go out there and think about what you’re really doing. You’ve just got to go out there and do it.
“It’s cool to get out there finally, but at the same time, you just go out there and do it.”
LeGendre went 7 of 13 for 42 yards and threw two interceptions before Locksley made the decision to go with Najarian.
“Eric became the guy that gave us the best chance to win,” he said. “We started with Lance, and we sputtered on offense, andwe just felt like we weren’t in sync.
“Whether itwas the communication, the reads, the operation, it just wasn’t there, and Eric is a guy that Ihave a lot of confidence in because he’s taken those reps, that he could operate, and he did a great job. That’s a credit to him for having himself prepared to go out and perform theway that he did.”
The Terps had committed more penalties and lost more penalty yards than their opponents in the first four games, and Saturday was no different. Maryland set season worsts in penalties (12) and penalty yards (145), while the Scarlet Knights were flagged just five times for 50 yards.