Maryland football’s matchup against Washington on Saturday was its most anticipated game in years. The first sellout since 2023, and boasting one of the best defenses in the nation, brought hope to Maryland fans that the 2025 team was different from years past.
The Terps failed to change the narrative around the program.
Maryland squandered a 20-point third-quarter lead, allowing Washington to score 24 unanswered points in an unimaginable 24-20 loss.
“We knew that it would come down to our skill today, running, walking, tackling, catching and throwing,” head coach Michael Locksley said. “Washington did a little bit better than us, and especially in critical situations where they needed to make plays, they did. These are great lessons for us.”
In Locksley’s seven seasons as Maryland’s head coach, he is 0-10 after a bye, including some brutal losses in games they were supposed to win. After a humiliating 37-10 loss against Northwestern in 2024 — a game they were favored to win — the Terps hit a new low on Saturday.
The Terps took their foot off the gas, likely the result of some conservative play-calling. Maryland entirely abandoned the run game in the second half, while the defense was collapsing. Some crucial penalties not going their way didn’t help either, as Washington stole the momentum.
“We just went out there and we didn’t work in the first half, freshman quarterback Malik Washington said about the second half game plan. “The first drive was methodical, taking the same thing in the second half. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way.”
Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. flipped the script in the second half, throwing for over 200 of his 275 passing yards while leading three touchdown drives to secure the comeback win.
But Maryland’s offense put together its best-looking drive of the fourth quarter as Malik Washington gave Jalil Farooq a chance, hitting him in the hands on a deep ball. But the senior couldn’t squeeze it, leading to a failed fourth-down and eight attempt. The drop sucked the remaining life out of a disappearing sellout crowd.
With how Maryland’s defense had played this season and through two and a half quarters, it seemed extremely unlikely they could blow such a significant lead. The Terps came in boasting the seventh-best scoring defense in the country, allowing just 10.75 points per game, with most of its touchdowns given up coming in garbage time.
The defensive dominance of the first four games didn’t translate into the second half. For the first time this season, the Terps allowed touchdowns on three straight possessions, and the narratives started writing themselves.
The game turned from everything going Maryland’s way to everything going Washington’s way in the middle of the third quarter. The Huskies gained just 103 first-half yards as the quarterback, Williams, looked flustered after throwing his first interception of the season on the team’s first drive.
From that moment on, the Terps had all of the momentum in the first half.
Malik Washington commanded multiple sustained scoring drives, highlighted by Washington and Octavian Smith’s connection. The freshman connected with the senior wide receiver for multiple chunk plays into the redzone, leading to their two touchdown scores.
Washington’s best throw of the night came in the opening quarter, when he threw a 23-yard dot to Smith Jr. near the sideline — a beautifully placed ball for his receiver to come back to.
Those moments were nonexistent in the second half, as the playcalling reverted back to those same short passes that gave Maryland fans headaches last year. From that point, they only gained 52 yards and three first downs, leaving the defense on for extended periods of time.
For the first 18 quarters of the season, the Terps ‘ identity was complementary football, but they failed to pick each other up as the game started to unravel. The offense stalled, and the defense broke down with the loss of freshman Sidney Stewart after a targeting call, leading to an embarrassing collapse that could have been easily avoided.
“It’s being able to continue to play to our standard, to not get big heads, not look at the scoreboard, to not let a play or two distract us [from] finishing the game no matter what,” linebacker Daniel Wingate said. “We were up on them the whole game, and just being able to finish it to the end so the clock hit zero, something we gotta work on.”
Missed tackles, a lack of generated pressure on Williams Jr. and penalties haunted the Terps.
After forcing an incompletion inside the ten-yard line, defensive back Dontay Jorner was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for what seemed like a typical seatbelt celebration. That flag set the Huskies up for another touchdown score.
Along with running into the punter call that could have been called roughing, the sky continued to fall, eventually leading to an embarrassing loss.
“In a moment like this, when everybody’s down and people are pointing fingers … we have to face adversity sometimes and come out of it stronger,” Washington said. “We have to find a way to keep moving forward.”
