COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It’s a dark, humid Friday night under the lights at SECU Stadium. The Mighty Sound of Maryland roars in triumph after a home victory in front of a crowd of 35,331.
Inside a workroom nearby, NIU football head coach Thomas Hammock quietly sits at a plastic folding-leg table. He lets out a deep sigh and presses his hand against his face. He looks exasperated, even defeated.
Minutes earlier, the Terrapins kneeled out a 20-9 victory in their home stadium, keeping the visiting Huskies winless in College Park. It also marks the end of NIU’s three-game winning streak — once tied for the third-longest in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
As Hammock began his postgame remarks to the media, he struggled to find the right words.
“Obviously, a disappointing result,” Hammock said. “I thought our kids really played hard. I thought they competed. We didn’t make enough plays to win the game, and that’s what it comes down to.”
The Huskies had their shortcomings in multiple stages of the game, from a fake punt gone awry in the second quarter to a failed 2-point conversion in the third. Though Maryland bested NIU in total yardage (340-271), the visitors finished with more total plays (70-64) and time of possession (33:35-26:25).
Not enough offense
NIU was dominant in the run game, producing 180 yards on the ground on 48 attempts. Running backs Telly Johnson Jr. and Chavon Wright combined for 176 yards and a touchdown. Johnson ripped off a 74-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter that put NIU within arm’s reach of Maryland — setting a new career-long for the sophomore.
Despite leaning on his rushers, Hammock wasn’t satisfied with the backs’ performance.
“We need more from our running game, to be honest with you,” Hammock said. “There’s just a lot of yards they didn’t get there that we have to be better at.”
However, the seventh-year head coach demands even more improvement from his team’s passing attack. During the pregame show on Huskie Sports Radio Network, Hammock said he had told starting quarterback Josh Holst to “cut it loose.”
By game’s end, NIU hadn’t even cracked 100 yards through the air.
Holst completed 14-of-22 passes for 91 yards and no touchdowns in his fifth career start. Meanwhile, Maryland freshman quarterback Malik Washington went 19-for-35 passing for 254 yards and two touchdowns in his second career start.
Despite his quarterback’s shortcomings, Hammock said the blame doesn’t fall squarely on Holst.
“He’s got to play better,” Hammock said of Holst. “He’s got to be able to distribute the ball better, but, obviously, we need to run better routes. Our passing game needs to get drastically better for us to be what we want to be.”
If only plays could rewind
On the other side of the ball, NIU’s defense maintained its tenacity from Saturday’s opener. The Huskies recorded their second “takeback” of the season in the third quarter, when defensive end Jalonnie Williams scooped up a Washington fumble inside NIU’s red zone — the first turnover of Washington’s young career.
Sixth-year senior linebacker Quinn Urwiler finished the game with a team-best 10 tackles — nine solo — while redshirt sophomore linebacker Filip Maciorowski followed up with six tackles in his second career start.
“I thought that we played very hard,” Maciorowski said. “We had a great gameplan, and I think we executed the gameplan. They have a great offense out there, and I feel like we matched up well. There’s always going to be some plays we want back, and that’s football.”
One of the best instances of that came early in the fourth quarter. With a third-down tackle on Jalil Farooq at the NIU 42, the Huskies forced the Terrapins into a fourth-and-medium situation near midfield. One more stop, and it’d be the offense’s turn to swing the momentum.
Instead, Maryland delivered what would ultimately be the final dagger.
Washington took the fourth-down snap out of the shotgun. He sat in the pocket for four seconds. Untouched. No pressure. He fired a pass deep right, threading it over the outstretched right hand of safety Jasper Beeler and into the hands of his receiver Shaleak Knotts.
Knotts turned around and saw nothing but green turf ahead of him. All he had to do was trot into the end zone.
Touchdown, Terrapins.
After the game, Hammock said NIU knew exactly what Maryland had up its sleeve. The slip-up was simply a matter of execution.
“We made a call on fourth down. We knew exactly what they were trying to do, and we’ve got to have great eye discipline on the back end. That’s what it came down to,” Hammock said. “They made a play, and we didn’t.”
A flat finale
From that point, NIU’s offensive tempo ran mostly cold. The Huskies went three-and-out on their next drive before turning over on downs after that. The Terps missed a 37-yard field goal in the final minutes to give NIU once last gasp, which the offense used to push 39 yards down the field to Maryland’s 41-yard line.
Rather than attempt the traditional Hail Mary shot with 6 seconds left, the Huskies instead sent out Glass for his second attempt of the night: a 58-yarder that would set his career-long by 8 yards. The kicker’s attempt ultimately fell short of the uprights — just as the Huskies fell short for a third time in Maryland’s home stadium.
Despite a deflating loss, Hammock gave a message of hope as the Huskies enter a bye week before they head south to meet Mississippi State on Sept. 20 in Starkville.
“We didn’t make plays that we needed to make in critical moments, but we should have some confidence. We went toe-to-toe with them as long as we could go,” Hammock said. “We’ll learn from this game. I’m proud of the way the guys played. I’m proud of how they competed. They fought for four quarters against a Big Ten opponent with a lot more resources, and we showed we had a lot of heart.”
