Run game proves key in victory over 49ers
Ground attack settled down, was productive in second half
COLLEGE PARK — Maryland football’s first touchdown in Saturday night’s 38-20 victory over Charlotte at SECU Stadium was not produced by redshirt senior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, graduate student wide receiver Jeshaun Jones, redshirt junior tight end Corey Dyches or redshirt sophomore running back Roman Hemby.
That score came from redshirt sophomore quarterback Billy Edwards Jr., who punched in a 1-yard plunge into the end zone that helped give the Terps their first lead at 17-14 with 9:18 left in the third quarter.
The touchdown was a timely redemption for the Wake Forest transfer. Earlier in that possession, Edwards attempted a rush on third-and-1 at the 49ers’ 26-yard line and fumbled. But Hemby picked up the loose ball and gained 2 yards for the first down.
The Tagovailoa-Edwards rotation is reminiscent of what the New Orleans Saints did with Drew Brees and Taysom Hill from 2018 to 2020. Maryland coach Mike Locksley said utilizing the 6-foot-4, 219-pound Edwards is designed to protect the 5-11, 208-pound Tagovailoa.
“With Lia, we’re trying to minimize the extra hits that he takes,” Locksley said. “Billy’s a bigger body. Obviously, it’s something that we’ve practiced and put in where we get a bigger body and try to create an apex.”
Here are three other observations from the Terps’ win.
The run game should be the offense’s foundation
The game notes produced by Charlotte’s athletic department contain a passage describing coach Biff Poggi’s commitment to the rushing attack. Maryland would be wise to borrow a page from that playbook.
Tagovailoa’s ill-advised pass to Hemby on a wheel route along the left sideline was inter
cepted by redshirt junior middle linebacker Demetrius Knight II, who returned the ball 16 yards to give the 49ers a 14-0 advantage with 11:50 remaining in the first quarter. Tagovailoa finished the quarter completing 3 of 6 passes for 14 yards.
The Terps’ offense finally got rolling in the second half when it leaned on Hemby and junior Colby McDonald. Hemby, an Edgewood resident and John Carroll graduate, carried the ball 15 times for 153 yards and one touchdown in the last two quarters en route to finishing with 19 rushes for 162 yards.
McDonald, who replaced redshirt sophomore Antwain Littleton II after Littleton earned a benching for his decision to shove a Charlotte tackler after a run in the second quarter, had eight attempts for 73 yards and one score.
Locksley said after he saw how the offensive line was dominating the line of scrimmage, he encouraged offensive coordinator Josh Gattis to continue to rely on the ground game. For his part, Hemby said he took it upon himself to be more effective after halftime.
“I feel like in the first half, I was a little antsy,” Hemby said. “I was a little trigger-happy just by being excited and being in that atmosphere. But I feel like I was able to settle in. 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.”
The score was fine, but the road getting there wasn’t
When Charlotte opened the game with a five-play, 75-yard march capped by a 48-yard touchdown pass from senior Jalon Jones (St.
Frances) to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jairus Mack and then capitalized on Knight’s pick-six for a 14-0 advantage before the game was even four minutes old, previous versions of the Terps might have folded and limped their way to an embarrassing loss.
But the defense shut out the 49ers for 55:28, sacked Jones three times, intercepted him once and stripped him another time, which led to a fumble recovery. And the offense scored 38 unanswered points to reinvigorate an announced attendance of 32,804 that could have left early.
Charlotte scored a meaningless touchdown on its final series of the game, but Maryland’s lethargic start and weak finish burned Locksley.
“To me, I’d rather execute better, start fast, making sure that we come out with the right type of energy and enthusiasm,” he said. “To me, the fourth-quarter finish is the key. I really don’t like how we finished in the fourth quarter. We had opportunities to get off the field. Missed some tackles, blew a coverage at the end. Those are the things we’ve got to get corrected pretty quickly.”
Junior defensive end Donnell Brown, who intercepted Jones in the fourth quarter, agreed that he and his teammates should be satisfied with their performance.
“Even though we won in a good fashion, we didn’t start well, we didn’t finish well, but we played well in between,” he said. “I know for Coach Locks and for us, we’ve just got to play well all the way through. If we do that, we have a chance to do something special.”
Talk led to action
Locksley is fond of saying that the locker room has evolved to what he expected when he agreed to helm the program before the 2019 season. He got a glimpse of that growth Saturday night.
After a floundering offensive display in the first half, redshirt junior left tackle Delmar Glaze said Tagovailoa and Jones took it upon themselves to rally their teammates on that side of the ball.
“Just those two guys just letting us know that we’ve got to get rolling,” he said of their comments to the unit during halftime. “We can’t keep getting three-and-outs or getting three points instead of touchdowns. We’ve got to roll.”
Locksley said Jones and Glaze were vocal catalysts. He also cited freshman tight end Dylan Wade for encouraging his older teammates.
“I saw him as a young guy all up and down the sideline saying, ‘Let’s get it going,’ ” he said. “We need tough games like that. I’d rather us not do it here at home. I’d rather us kind of play to our standard and not be up and down the way we were today. What we’ve got to do today is get this behind us quickly and figure out what went wrong and then make the necessary adjustments with Virginia coming in on Friday night.”