By Jack Rothenburg
Coming off their bye week, the Terps looked to get their fourth win of the season against a
Nebraska team that is 1-3 away from Memorial Stadium and allowing 29.9 points per game. Walking around campus, and into the stadium it was clear that the majority of the stadium would be filled with Cornhusker fans. There were maybe 100 Maryland students and almost every seat was taken on the Nebraska side of the field. A decided Husker advantage.
The contest started off well for Maryland, as they forced a punt on the opening possession of the game. However, it was all downhill from there, because the Terps couldn’t stay out of their own way. On Maryland’s first offensive play, running back Javon Leake fumbled which set up Nebraska with a short field and a prime scoring opportunity. They capitalized off the turnover and took a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter. The Cornhuskers then went on to score on each of their next three possessions, taking a 24-0 lead 50 seconds into the second quarter.
Down by three possessions, the Terps turned to their third quarterback of the night Lance LeGendre, hoping that he could provide a spark for the offense. After a timely interception from defensive back Nick Cross, LeGendre started to move the ball down the field with a 26 yard rush. However, on only their second play of the game in Nebraska territory, LeGendre fumbled giving the ball right back to the Cornhuskers. On that same play, LeGendre was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury, which is a big blow for this Maryland squad moving forward.
Nebraska added 10 more points to their lead and pushed the score to 34-0 heading into halftime. The Terps couldn’t get anything moving on offense, only having 9 first downs and accumulating a total of 206 yards on the day. Even though the defense gave up 531 yards, the Terps offense didn’t help much. Out of the nine possessions the Cornhuskers had in the first half, four started in Terrapins territory which yielded 20 points.
With the whole second half left to play, you could kiss this one goodbye due to a highly ineffective offense that eventually had four quarterbacks play and throw for a combined 57 pass yards. “It’s hard to get into a rhythm when you turn the ball over to them and you give them the opportunities we gave them, especially in the first quarter,” head coach Mike Locksley said.
In the second half, the Terps added one more fumble to the stat sheet and were only able to muster 7 points and eventually fell to Nebraska 54-7. With one game left in the season against Michigan State, Maryland will either cap off this roller coaster season with an upset or end it with a seven-game losing streak. No matter what the outcome is in East Lansing, the Terps have a lot of work to do before next season and they should start on that around 7:00 p.m. next Saturday as the 2019 season ends.
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