Maryland football finishes games. Sound the alarm. 

One play for the game. Purdue flying down the field — 84 yards in 56 seconds. 

Five seconds remained. Ball on the 16-yard line. 

The snap was clean; coverage was good. Pressure came from the quarterback’s left. He rolled right, but Maryland’s premier defenders were ready. 

Zion Elee reached him first, but Sidney Stewart brought down the quarterback, securing Maryland’s first conference win in 413 days. 

The Terps went on to outscore Purdue 27-17 in the second half, launching Maryland to a 34-29 victory in West Lafayette. 

After Purdue kicked a field goal to bring the game into one-possession range, Maryland football found itself in a familiar predicament. 

Third and forever, needing a successful drive to shut down Purdue’s comeback. Opponents have killed Maryland in the fourth quarter all season. The Terps just lost on a walk-off field goal. 

They needed to move the ball. But it was third and 19. And then it wasn’t.

Receiver Chris Durr Jr. caught a smoke screen to the left of the formation. 

He shrugged off Purdue DB Mister Clark after immediate contact. He broke another tackle. He made four more defenders miss. He broke a third tackle. Then Durr ran 87 yards into Purdue’s end zone. 

“Malik should be thanking him because he padded his stats with a pass behind the line of scrimmage and he went 87 yards,” Abdul-Rahim said.

Maryland scored a touchdown on four out of five second-half drives. The final drive pinned Purdue on their own five-yard line with 61 seconds to play. 

Under interim head coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim, Maryland’s second-half struggles aren’t gone, but they are certainly improved. 

Maryland allowed three scores in the second half against Purdue. But it also forced a fumble and stopped the Boilermakers on the inch line, key stops that gave Maryland breathing room to win it. 

Maryland’s defense has looked sharper under Abdul-Rahim. Through two games, the unit has allowed 24.5 points per game. It allowed over 40 points per game to conference opponents before Abdul-Rahim took over. 

The front seven proved they are still the team’s shining stars. EDGE Zion Elee had two sacks; EDGE Nahsir Taylor, EDGE DD Holmes, EDGE Sidney Stewart and LB Carlton Smith had one apiece. DB Lavain Scruggs also got home, forcing a fumble that led to a touchdown. 

“I think it’s the strength in numbers,” Abdul-Rahim said. “We have a talented D-line. You know, we can throw a lot of different individuals out sometimes on run downs as well as pass downs.”

Maryland is up to 24 sacks this season after seven on Saturday. The defense combined for 13 tackles for loss; four different players had at least two. 

Maryland also held Purdue to one red zone touchdown, a rare feat for one of the worst red zone defenses in the conference. Maryland allowed 79% of red zone drives to score touchdowns in 2026 before Saturday. 

Purdue went one-for-six in the red zone. Drives ended on the Maryland four, six, eight, and 16-yard lines.

“They were extremely resilient,” Abdul-Rahim said. “A little bit bent, but not break. They played their best football when it mattered.”

Maryland’s offense put together its first successful second half (in a conference game) of the season. 

Often, Maryland’s offense fails to generate yardage, leaving the defense on the field and unable to score. 

Washington, injured for much of the second half, running back DeJuan Williams, and obviously Durr, made sure that didn’t happen on Saturday.  

“We talked about brotherhood; we talked about, man, playing for each other,” Abdul-Rahim said. “And he laid it on the line for us today.”

The Terps played in tandem for the first time in seven games. The offense scored touchdowns every time the defense gave up points in the second half. 

DeJuan Williams had 99 rushing yards on 14 carries; Durr had 127 yards on four catches. Both had touchdowns. 

Washington finished with 285 total yards and four total touchdowns. 

Washington, with a noticeable limp for much of the second half, punched in a quarterback sneak on fourth down to put Maryland up two scores. He also scored Maryland’s only touchdown of the first half on the ground. He delivered a 25-yard pass on third and ten to help burn two more minutes at the end of the game. 

“I was like, “Yeah, coach, like give me a chance. That’s all I need. Give me a chance.” And you know, he, Coach, believed in me really, and I think that was the actual little push that we needed,” Washington said in regard to the fourth-down sneak for the touchdown.

The Terps have improvements to make, such as a seven-point first half and 29 points allowed. 

“It’s huge, really just for the guys around the team. Of course, we love the support … but at the end of the day, it’s about the guys in the locker room,” Washington said when asked about bringing the win back to Maryland.