Maryland football overcomes rocky start to down Charlotte, 38-20

Maryland football looked like it was in for a long night less than four minutes into its bout with Charlotte.

Busted coverage allowed the 49ers to take the lead on a long opening-drive touchdown. Octavion Smith Jr. muffed the ensuing kickoff, and while it was recovered by Maryland, it set the offense up with poor field position. Taulia Tagovailoa’s first-down pass attempt was promptly intercepted and returned for a touchdown, putting Charlotte up 14-0.

“I thought that they came out and played a little harder, played a little smarter,” coach Michael Locksley said.

But the Terps (2-0) found their footing after a rough first half and dominated Charlotte (1-1) the rest of the way. They scored 38 unanswered points, escaped a primetime upset and cruised to a 38-14 victory under the SECU Stadium lights Saturday night. 

Maryland’s run game was lethal in the second half. It stacked seven carries of 10 or more yards — four of which came from redshirt sophomore Roman Hemby, who compiled an absurd 149 second-half rushing yards.

He added on 55 receiving yards, finishing the game with a career-high 219 yards from scrimmage.

Tagovailoa rebounded from a rough start to finish with 287 yards and a passing touchdown. But two ugly interceptions put an asterisk on the night for a quarterback trying to establish himself among the country’s best.

Maryland’s defense only allowed touchdowns on the 49ers’ first and last drives. Between those points, they dominated a physically inferior Charlotte front, holding it to just 2.3 yards per carry outside of a 46-yard scramble from quarterback Jalon Jones in garbage time.

The Terps shot themselves in the foot repeatedly early in the first quarter. 

A miscommunication between senior cornerback Ja’Quan Sheppard and junior safety Dante Trader Jr. led to a 48-yard touchdown for Charlotte just three minutes into the game.

Sophomore receiver Octavion Smith Jr. muffed the ensuing kickoff, and while it was recovered by Maryland, it set the offense up with poor field position at its own 13-yard line. 

It didn’t end up mattering, because Taulia Tagovailoa’s first-down pass attempt was promptly intercepted and returned for a touchdown to put Charlotte up 14-0.

On third-and-eight the next drive, junior receiver Kaden Prather let a first down slip through his hands on a wide-open comeback route, giving the ball right back to the red-hot 49ers.

The Terps didn’t pick up a first down until the final play of the quarter, when Tagovailoa found graduate receiver Jeshaun Jones for a 17-yard gain.

That completion jump started a 72-yard drive for an offense with -2 total yards before it. But poor redzone execution led to a Jack Howes field goal for Maryland’s first points of the game.

The Terps’ offense found a new gear in the second quarter. They averaged 7.9 yards per play for a total of 189, while Charlotte mustered only 51 second-quarter yards.

“I’ve seen this team lose it in the past, where we start off slow and it just snowballs,” Locksley said. “These guys stuck together and fought through.”

But Maryland failed to make noise once it got into scoring position. All it mustered in the quarter was a trio of field goals.

Redshirt sophomore running back Antwain Littleton II was called for unnecessary roughness at Charlotte’s five-yard line, forcing Maryland to settle for another three points on a 61-yard drive.

Prather had a fade-route touchdown called back for offensive pass interference on the Terps’ next drive — one that featured three receptions of 15 or more yards to set up a scoring opportunity.

The final of those three came after the penalty. A 20-yard strike to Prather set up Howes’ third field goal of the quarter, cutting the Charlotte lead to 14-9 at halftime.

Maryland found its form in the third quarter. Its offense looked like it had a week earlier against Towson, starting with a 40-yard scamper by Hemby on the half’s first play.

It finally converted once in the red zone, as redshirt sophomore quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. subbed in to sneak across the goal line for Maryland’s first touchdown.

The Terps’ defense was stifling in the third quarter, preventing any opportunity for Charlotte to regain the lead. That started in the trenches with a front seven that allowed just 0.7 yards per rushing attempt in the quarter.

Hemby continued his second-half dominance, picking up 33 yards on his first three carries of the next drive. But a redzone opportunity amounted to nothing when Tagovailoa targeted Prather through double coverage and was intercepted in the end zone.

Junior running back Colby McDonald found paydirt for the first time this season after multiple long runs on the first drive of the final quarter, bringing the Terps’ lead to 10.

“As the game goes on, you just keep running it, wear them down,” redshirt junior offensive tackle D.J. Glaze said “The holes started opening up.”

Two more touchdowns late in the fourth quarter — a 40-yard strike to Prather and a 15-yard Hemby rush — cemented the Terps’ second-straight victory to start the season.

They enter a short week of rest ahead of a Friday night contest at home with Virginia. They’ll need to address the slow start to prevent falling behind against their first Power Five opponent of the year.

“I’d rather execute better, start faster,” Locksley said. “Those are the things that we’ve got to get corrected quickly with Virginia coming to town.”