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For about 45 minutes, it seemed like Maryland football players were walking through a wall to find their troubled coach. Despite some oversights, the Terps, underdogs with 14.5 points, held a 16-7 lead in Nebraska it should have been bigger.
Then the wheels fell off the bus, the Huskers (5-0) scored 34 unanswered points and Maryland (2-3) suffered its third straight loss, 48-23, at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Now, everyone’s attention returns to Maryland’s hot coaching seat. Mike Locksley and how long he will stay at work
“I can’t complain about the effort and energy we started the game with. Make no mistake about it. I thought they came in and approached this game with the right mentality, but they had way too many self-inflicted wounds,” Locksley said. “We had a three-drive swing in the first half when we had opportunities coming our way, where we get the punt blocked, we give up a third-and-27 with a late penalty, and then we had the pick six as well.”
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It was the third pick six thrown by quarterback Malik Washington in the last two matches. After starting the season on a national hype train, the sophomore struggled. he finished 23 of 44 for 254 yards, one touchdown and two backbreaking interceptions.
“Typically when you throw interceptions, you either misread the coverage or sometimes they make a play. I can tell you that on the one where they jumped, they doubled the tilt. With that coverage, we want to make sure we get to the other side, where we’ve had more advantageous matchups. I still think he made the right decision on one of the interceptions. You just have to get there a little quicker.”
More below from Locksley:
Opening statement:
“As always, give Nebraska credit, Matt. Good football team. They came down, responded with big plays when they needed to. I thought our guys came out to play this week.
And when you play good teams like Nebraska, they don’t need any help. So it’s all coaching, it’s execution, and it’s my fault. I’m going to keep showing up and doing the work, the necessary work, until the results catch up.
“I thought our players really showed up. It was great to have DeJuan back today. He helped us a little bit in the running game, but there’s still way too many self-inflicted wounds that we’ll have tomorrow, watch the film, watch it. It starts with third down. For me, on the offensive end, we didn’t do a great job on third down. On defense, like I said, the explosive plays showed up and then blocking a punt. So all three phases have had their opportunities, and what we need to do is get these guys to play when they’re there, and then we need to coach better, starting with me, on this, I’m going to open up to questions.
Q: There were a few late third-down streaks late in the game. One was a designed run to Malik on third down and the other was a screen pass to Fleming. What were your thoughts on these two play calls, and why has third down been difficult in recent weeks?
“I can’t say anything about those two plays in particular. It depends on where we were in the game. But I can tell you that the difficulties on third down come with execution. Not just the players on the field, but also making sure we have a good plan, because you can’t spend two weeks in what we call capitalization situations. This week we had more average situations than the extra long situations we had a week ago, and we We didn’t get the execution right, whether it was the play calling, whether it was the blocking, whether it was the playmakers making the plays on the perimeter.
Q: What adjustments do you think the Nebraska defense made to stop you, especially on third downs?
“I think the biggest thing is, as we’ve been able to move the ball early in the game, some of the things have been designed for our playmakers, where we’re giving Chris Durr some touches. Once they start giving up coverage, we now have to run the ball consistently. I don’t think we’ve ever run it consistently. I knew we had to be really good on first and 10. If you look at us on offense when we’re on the right lane, meaning four or more on first-and-10, practice usually ends the way we want it to, and we still had way too many first-and-10s where we didn’t stay on track.”
Q: After last week’s game, you had to hit the road and face Nebraska. What stood out to you about your team’s mental response and how they managed to hold together last week?
“I think the most important thing is that they really bought into the DNA of Maryland football, which is we get up. No matter what happens, we’re going to continue to get back up, and that’s part of their DNA that we instilled. But I also think they approached the job with the right mentality this week. We were able to give these guys some breathing room, and I thought we showed up. Like I told our team, we have to keep doing the work and the results will eventually catch up. I know the goal is to win, but we just have to keep working harder.
Q: You talked in the press conference earlier this week about the need to get (the offense) into a rhythm. How do you think the offense took place?
“I thought in the first half we did that, because we were able to have a running game. DeJuan came in and made some explosive runs, and that in itself takes the pressure off you. Our receivers got lined up a lot quicker. We took some of those things away from Malik having to get guys lined up. I thought we were aligned better. That’s the point we emphasized, taking those things off his plate, but we still have to figure out how to win the football situational and third down offense The last two weeks, we have to do a better job of coming up with a plan, and then we have to do a better job of executing it.
Q: On the Nebraska quarterback Anthony Colandréa:
“After facing him, this is the third time we’ve faced him. When he’s most dangerous is in the back passing game, when you’re covering guys and now you keep him in the pocket. If you allow him to run, which we did today, he ran for over 100 yards. Most of them were down in the passing game where we play zone coverage, there’s a lot of space and we “When we kept him in the pocket, we forced him to make some tough throws, but I don’t think we did a great job of keeping him where we wanted him today.”
Q: You talked about the importance of team growth in execution. What do you think is the most important area for the team to grow in?
“I think it starts with a third down, in both phases. We just haven’t gotten to where we need to be consistently on third down, on both sides of the ball. And then when you look at blocking a punt, very rarely when you have a blocked punt in a game, you give yourself an opportunity. To me, we need to go back and make sure we’ve trained those things well and make sure we have the right things called to ensure we get a better result.”
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