Game Recap: Lions stunned by Terps, fall to 0-3 for first time since 2001

A year after losing to Penn State by 59 points, Maryland turned the tables on its most vexing rival.

The final score of Saturday’s rematch at Beaver Stadium – Maryland 35, Penn State 19 – might suggest that the two teams played a reasonably competitive game. They did not. Behind transfer quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, the Terrapins dominated the first half and were never seriously threatened in the second.

It was only their third victory over Penn State in 44 tries, but it was decisive enough to exorcise some demons. The Terps scored more points than in any previous game against the Lions, and they scored more points in the first 20 minutes than they had in their previous four games combined vs. PSU.

“They made big plays, and we weren’t as competitive as we needed to be,” coach James Franklin said. “We were out of leverage. They had a few little wrinkles to challenge our man coverages and did a nice job of executing them. We’ve got to get better, there’s no doubt about it. We’ve got to look at the tape and make corrections. But we were not competitive early on in the game.”

The Lions were coming off a narrow overtime loss at Indiana and an up-and-down effort against Ohio State, games in which there were some positives to pull from all the negatives. But there were precious few positive takeaways from this one. This was not a game of inches; Maryland scored touchdowns of 42, 62 and 38 and 34 yards in the first half, gaining 335 yards of total offense before heading to the locker room.

Penn State had begun the season with Big Ten championship aspirations but will head to Nebraska this coming week, the midway point of this shortened regular season, still in search of its first win.

Here’s a look at the good and the bad:

• Jahan Dotson had an acrobatic 20-yard touchdown catch to get Penn State on the scoreboard in the second quarter. Coming off a great night against Ohio State, the junior wideout was once again outstanding, finishing with nine catches for 123 yards. Also, Pat Freiermuth had six catches for 91 yards.

• Penn State’s defense pitched a shutout in the second half, albeit after allowing Maryland to rack up four first-half touchdowns. The Terps totaled only 70 yards of offense after the break, but that was at least partly because they were working the clock for much of the fourth quarter.

• Where to begin? How about with the passing game, where things went badly for PSU on both sides of the ball.

Penn State may have finished with 340 yards and three touchdowns through the air, but Sean Clifford was wild all night, throwing 30 incompletions on a career-high 57 passing attempts, with a pair of second-half interceptions.

He was also sacked seven times. Some were coverage sacks that stemmed from the difficulties the receivers had trying to create separation, others were due to the pressure he was facing from a Maryland defensive front not previously known for the ferocity of its pass rush. No matter what the cause, Franklin said afterward that the Lions need to improve in a variety of areas, especially up front.

“We’ve got to consistently protect our quarterback,” he said. “There are too many times when he’s under pressure and getting hit early in games. He’s been hit way too many times this season, he’s been sacked too many times this season. Does that have an effect? Yeah, it does. Obviously, there are some throws we need to make, there are some catches we need to make. We all own responsibility in this.”

While Penn State’s passing game was struggling, Tagovailoa showed that his star-making performance in an overtime win over Minnesota last week was no fluke. He hit 18 of 26 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns. And with his quarterback spraying quick, accurate throws all over the field, receiver Rakim Jarrett was able to gash the Lions for 144 yards and two TDs on five catches, averaging 28.8 yards per reception.

• The Lions couldn’t get their running game going against one of the Big Ten’s most porous front sevens, although that was partly because they fell behind so quickly that they had to deviate from whatever plans they may have had to try to control the game on the ground. Penn State finished with 94 yards on 36 carries for an average of 2.6 yards per rushing attempt. Its longest carry was a 17 yarder by Clifford. The longest carry by a running back was a 15-yarder by Devyn Ford.

“We weren’t sustaining blocks, we haven’t been able to break tackles consistently and make people miss consistently,” Franklin said. “It’s been similar for the first couple of weeks. We’re not getting a consistent push, we’re not sustaining blocks, and then obviously we’re not breaking tackles and making people miss, and we’re not able to put people in conflict with the RPO stuff because there’s not enough respect and concern for the running game right now.”

• Penn State’s penchant for slow starts continued. The Lions have now faced double-digit halftime deficits in all three of their games this season. They trailed Indiana by 10 points and Ohio State by 15 before spotting Maryland a 28-7 lead on Saturday.

• Penn State lost the turnover battle again, and one of its three giveaways – a 34-yard scoop-and-score by Chance Campbell on its first possession of the second half – all but put the game away for the Terps. PSU’s defense didn’t have any takeaways.

Next up: a rare trip to Nebraska. The Nittany Lions first played the Cornhuskers in 1920, but over the course of this century-long series, they’ve made only seven visits to Lincoln. They’ve only been to Nebraska once since the Huskers joined the Big Ten, falling, 32-23, in 2012. The last time they prevailed in Lincoln was in 1981, when Curt Warner ran for 238 yards to spearhead a 30-24 victory.

Nebraska was, of course, one of the most zealous advocates for the Big Ten to play football this fall. League officials ended up giving the Cornhuskers what they wanted, but since the mid-September announcement that the Big Ten was in fact going to play, nothing much has gone their way. The league’s revised schedule sent them to Ohio State on opening day, where they fell, 52-17. Their next game, against Wisconsin, was canceled due to the Badgers’ COVID outbreak, and they followed that unexpected off-week with a 21-13 loss at Northwestern on Saturday.

Against the Wildcats, Nebraska quarterbacks Adrian Martinez and Luke McCaffrey teamed up to complete 24 of 45 pass attempts for 218 yards, and they added a combined 151 rushing yards, but they couldn’t find the end zone either through the air or on the ground. Both QBs had an interception, with McCaffrey’s pick coming deep in Northwestern territory late in the game with the Cornhuskers driving for what could have been the tying touchdown.

Somebody’s struggles are going to come to an end next Saturday when Penn State and Nebraska bring their combined 0-5 record into Memorial Stadium. Maybe its meltdown vs. Maryland will serve as the rock bottom from which Penn State bounces back. Or maybe there’s still more room to tumble. One certainty is that Franklin has got a lot of work ahead of him in the coming days. “We need to get it fixed,” he said, “and we need to get it fixed fast.”

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