Through the first five weeks, Maryland football’s defense was solid. Despite blowing a 20-point lead to Washington, Maryland’s defense was arguably its strongest side of the ball.
That wasn’t the case on Saturday against Nebraska — the Terps gave up 34 points to the Cornhuskers. Maryland also had three turnovers that led to 17 points.
Maryland’s defense struggled to tackle and Nebraska capitalized as the Terps fell, 34-31.
“Usually when we miss tackles in space, it’s overrunning the football and pursuing long stride, short stride in the open field, pursuit to the ball,” head coach Michael Locksley said.
Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson had a field day with Maryland’s defense. He finished with 176 rushing yards on 21 carries. Johnson also had 20 receiving yards — he exploded for 196 yards from scrimmage.
Johnson had several plays where he broke numerous Maryland tackles, even when the Terps had him wrapped up.
From the first play from scrimmage, Johnson had his way with Maryland’s defense. He drew comparisons to a former running back of Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, Christian McCaffrey. He battled through several Terps trying to tackle him.
The Terps recorded 24 missed tackles on Saturday. It took multiple tries to get Johnson to the ground and the rest of Nebraska’s offense took advantage of Maryland’s poor tackling.
According to Pro Football Focus, Maryland had 27.0 tackle grade — the second-worst mark in the Big Ten since those stats have been recorded.
In the fourth quarter, Maryland applied pressure on Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola while holding to a close lead, but couldn’t sack him.
Over the last two weeks, Maryland has been outscored 31-0 in the fourth quarter. Maryland has struggled to get off the field in these scenarios, and it’s part of the reason the Terps lost both games.
Nebraska took advantage in the fourth quarter because of missed tackles.
“Missed tackles, again, a week ago we had opportunities to finish off on the quarterback. If you take a look at some of those plays,” Locksley said. “They had explosive plays in those long drives, and then we fight and hold them in the red area, but there was too many explosives in the run game.”
Every time Maryland needed a stop late in the game on a third or fourth down, its tackling let it down.
Nebraska had several screen passes, including Nyziah Hunter’s 64-yard touchdown for its first score of the day, which was a byproduct of bad tackling. The Cornhuskers built space by breaking tackles and had a plethora of large gains as a result.
“Today, they had a couple of screens that spit out and we did not get the ball on the ground. And typically when we don’t tackle, well, it’s a byproduct of the fundamentals,” Locksley said. “So we’ll get to take a look at it and make sure we continue to work to do a better job of finishing anyway.”
Even on special teams, Maryland struggled to tackle. After Maryland took the lead back in the first half, the Terps allowed an 85-yard kick return and Nebraska scored a touchdown. Another case where Maryland’s tackling was abysmal — a big reason as to why the Terps lost.
Saturday was a back-and-forth contest that proved to be a game of inches. Nebraska fought for several extra yards on different occasions because of Maryland’s tackling struggles.
The loss can be chalked up to several different reasons. The Terps were undisciplined and made unforced errors on personal fouls.
“You just got to be more disciplined. And that’s not something that’s coached. It’s not something that we emphasize. But to go after the whistle is a player game, like we we inflicted that on ourselves. We have to face it,” Jalen Huskey said.
Maryland is a young team, Locklsey said during the week, that his team is no longer inexperienced, but the Terps lacked the experience to pull out a win against a solid Big Ten opponent.
Except for Daniel Wingate and Jalen Huskey, Maryland’s defense is headed by freshmen. Sidney Stewart and Zahir Mathis have been key contributors, but they can’t be relied on to do everything on their own.
Maryland’s defense, from a tackling perspective, needed to be a more effective unit.
