Maryland football fell to Illinois for its sixth consecutive loss on Saturday, 24-6.
The Terps failed to take advantage of opportunities and were simply outclassed by the Illini.
Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game.
Failure to find the endzone
Maryland didn’t find the endzone on Saturday, despite multiple opportunities in the red zone.
“It’s disappointing when you don’t finish, if you focus on the outcome, which is the key is to ending drives and touchdowns,” head coach Michael Locksley said.
On Maryland’s opening drive, it marched all the way down the field and needed to find the end zone — it couldn’t, Maryland settled for a field goal.
It’s an issue the Terps have been plagued with in recent games. Against No. 2 Indiana, the same thing happened. The Terps were in a prime position to set the tone with an early touchdown, but couldn’t
“I think just kind of how the game ended up going. Sometimes the pocket makes you move one way or another. And just keep your eyes downfield,” Malik Washington said. “Trying to be able to make a play.”
Even when the Terps score a touchdown on the opening drive — like it did against Rutgers — its offense couldn’t sustain that momentum.
The Terps have scored on the opening drive in three consecutive games, yet scored a combined 23 points in the rest of those three games.
Later on, Maryland had a chance to get within one score after a big goal-line stop by its defense. The Terps marched down 95 yards, but got stuffed at the goal line as well. The failure the find the end zone, threw Maryland completely behind the 8-ball.
“But I think the most encouraging for me is the tempo,” Locksley said. “The rhythm I saw Malik [Washington] get into to see the comfort level starting to show at the end.”
Third down defensive failures
Illinois converted on third down with relative ease against Maryland’s defense.
The Illini were 7-of-13 on third down and it prevented any opportunity the Terps had to stay competitive on Saturday. Illinois was also 1-of-2 on fourth down.
The Terps, on the flipside, were 3-of-12 on third down and couldn’t extend their drives. They were also 0-of-2 on fourth down.
“Thought the way we played defense the last drive, if we could just get a stop to change the field position,” Locksley said.
Illinois had over 10 more minutes of possession and limited Maryland’s opportunities offensively and the Terps didn’t score when they had those opportunities.
With a young quarterback like Malik Washington, failing to convert on third down is an unfortunate reality of having a young quarterback. That said, the defense couldn’t get off the field to give him opportunities to spread out the offense.
“Obviously, we all didn’t play well enough, whether it’s us as coaches calling it, you know us as players, executing and making plays that are there,” Locksley said. “I don’t think any of us played enough to win the game.”
More difficulty stopping the run
Coming into Saturday, Maryland’s run defense had been beat down over the previous two games.
It got a bit better — but not enough against Illinois — the Terps gave up 225 yards on the ground.
The Terps have given up 200 or more yards for the third consecutive game after not doing so for the first seven games of the season.
For Illinois, it wasn’t one lead rusher — it was a committee. Kaden Faegin rushed for 81 yards and Ca’Lil Valentine rushed for 64 yards. Illinois quarterback Luke Altmeyer also added 62 yards on the ground.
The Terps only had 55 rushing yards. After a solid rushing game last week, Maryland once again couldn’t keep up with opponents on the ground on Saturday.
