Well, that’s that.
Playing in a game with most implications for the first time in seven years, the Rutgers football team fell to Maryland, 40-16, inside a cold, windy, and sunny SHI Stadium in Piscataway.
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With the loss, Maryland goes to 6-6 overall (3-6 Big Ten) on the season and will head to a bowl game. Rutgers (5-7, 2-7) sweats out the remaining few days of the regular season to see if it backs its way into a bowl if not enough bowl-eligible teams make the count.
See how it all went down below.
FIRST QUARTER
Rutgers won the toss and deferred to the second half. The Terrapins didn’t waste the opportunity with the ball by matriculating their way down the field with a nine-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a Corey Dyches 25-yard touchdown pass from Taulia Tagovailoa.
Maryland converted a third-and-9 on the drive on a 20-yard pass to a wide open Brian Cobbs.
After the kickoff, Rutgers was able to get one first-down, but was forced to punt. Adam Korsak, who is up for the Ray Guy Award, booted away a 54-yard punt to the Maryland 17-yard line.
The Terrapins began their second possession from their own 15-yard line after the negative return. A big run by Tayon Fleet-Davis out to the left side was good for 30 yards. A few plays later, Rakim Jarrett made a leaping, tough grab to move the chains on third-and-6 from the Maryland 49-yard line. Tagovailoa then connected with Cobbs for a 38-yard touchdown that was similar to the first score.
Rutgers defensive tackle Ifeanyi Maijeh blocked the ensuing extra point, and cornerback Kessawn Abraham scooped it up at the 15-yard line and returned it all the way into the end zone for two points for the home team.
Rutgers drove down the field with a mixture of Noah Vedral passes to Bo Melton and runs by Isaih Pacheco. Melton had a 31-yard catch and run. Running back Aaron Young got in on the action as well with an 11-yard run on a lateral down to the 8-yard line. The offense stalled, though, as Vedral’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
The first quarter ended with a booming Maryland punt helped out by the wind.
13-2 Maryland
SECOND QUARTER
Vedral threw an interception that bounced high in the air. The Terrapins brought a blitz and hit the signal caller hard. He stayed down for a couple of extra seconds. However, the defense held with a tackle-for-loss (Mayan Ahanotu), an incompletion, and a reception that was held up before the sticks.
Evan Simon came in for Vedral. It is Simon’s fifth game seeing action this season.
His first throw appeared to be a swing pass out to the left, but Pacheco wasn’t looking for it. So, he ended up throwing a solid ball down the left side of the field to Shameen Jones. Jones caught the ball, the pass led him just a hair out of bounds. A run by Pacheco and an incompletion brought out Korsak for another punt.
But, Rutgers held again defensively, making the Terps for three-and-out. It looked like a catch by Jarrett got him enough for a first down, but the officials ruled him short of the line to gain.
Johnny Langan, sporting No. 42, opened the drive at quarterback, running for four yards. He then stood tall in the pocket and delivered a dime down the right sideline to Jones for a 31-yard gain.
Vedral then came back in to hand off to Young. Vedral, to many eye rolls and sighs by the crowd, tossed an incompletion, and then a short 2-yarder to Melton. Pressure forced another pass to be knocked to the ground to Jones. The boo birds then rained down a bit as fans wanted Langan.
That might have been the turning point as Rutgers had momentum, and messed around putting an ineffective Vedral back in.
Maryland, eight plays and 64 yards later, made it 20-2 on a Tagovailoa 10-yard touchdown run. This time, the PAT was good. Joshua Youngblood caught a pass over the middle on Rutgers ensuing possession for eight yards, but the Scarlet Knights had just three plays before a Korsak punt.
Maryland would make its way down the field (again), but missed a 31-yard field goal with time winding down in the half. Snap was mishandled on third down.
20-2 Maryland
THIRD QUARTER
Simon led Rutgers on arguably its biggest drive of the game and season, and the possession ended with seven points.
Simon hit Jovani Haskins and Isaiah Washington on two quick out routes for seven yards apiece. They were sandwiched in between a Christian Dremel run. Pacheco then got through for a 23-yard gain on the ground. Another pass to Washington was complete, and then yardage was tacked on with a personal foul penalty. Three plays later, Langan muscled his way through for a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 20-9 with 11:34 to go in the frame.
Fleet-Davis silenced the energized announced crowd with an easy 43-yard down to the Rutgers 32-yard line. Avery Young made the one-on-one tackle and was banged up on the play. The Scarlet Knights got it to third down, and Tagovailoa found Jarrett for another pitch and catch. Jarrett broke a Robert Longerbeam tackle to move the yard markers.
Tagovailoa and Dyches then hooked up for an easy 11-yard touchdown on a short pass off to the right after a fake handoff to put the Terps ahead 26-9. The PAT was no good.
Melton wasn’t giving up, however, as he returned the kickoff that followed all the way down to the Maryland 37-yard line. A reverse from right to left by Melton picked up 12 yards and a first down. Simon bobbled a high snap, but was able to get the handoff cleanly to Young who stretched the defense and dove into the end zone on the right to cut the deficit to 26-16at teh 6:18 mark in the frame.
Needing a stop defensively, Rutgers got just that. Two runs were stuffed near the line of scrimmage, and a nice pass by Tagovailoa was dropped.
A promising possession by the Scarlet Knights ended with a high throw over the head of Youngblood on fourth down. A one-handed snag by Maryland’s Fleet-Davis brought the ball down to the Rutgers 16-yard line.....
26-16 Maryland
FOURTH QUARTER
…..Fleet-Davis then ran in a 13-yard touchdown to put the Terrapins up 33-16 with 14:51 left.
Rutgers kept chopping however as it marched down the field. Simon threw a gorgeous ball down the left sideline for a long gain to Washington. On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Langan was stuffed and Maryland took over at the 2.
That essentially was the game. Maryland and Fleet-Davis scored on the next possession.
It was a 10-point game in the third quarter.
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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