Baltimore, MD—-Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa hit Corey Dyches in the end zone to pull Maryland to within two points of Purdue with 35 seconds remaining, but the ensuing two-point conversion failed after the initial attempt was called back and the Terps lost a heartbreaker, 31-29 at SECU Stadium on Saturday.
The Terps opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 9-yard run, but the Boilermakers eventually took a 10-7 lead with the help of a Maryland penalty. The Terrapins were called for an illegal substitution when Purdue’s O’Connell threw an incomplete on third-and-goal from the two. Given another chance, the Boilermakers scored on RB Dylan Downing’s 1-yard run.
Maryland is now 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten while Purdue moved to 4-2 and 2-1 in the conference.
Tagovailoa had another stellar outing, completing 26-of-38 passes for 315 yards and three scores. He moved to second in career passing yards with 6,702, passing Chris Turner (6,543 from 2007-09). Scott Milanovich holds Maryland’s record with 7,301 career passing yards. His 315 yards were the 11th time he surpassed the 300-yard threshold, setting a program record.
“We had plenty of opportunities on the field to win this game, we just have to execute and take advantage of those opportunities. As I told our team, there’s a lot of football left to be played. Are we disappointed? Yeah, we sure are, because we let one slip away here at home. And I gotta credit, our crowd showed up today and played a major role, said coach Mike Lockley said. “We didn’t get it done, but I can tell you there’s a lot of football left to play. There’s no quit in this team. They’re disappointed, but they also know that we left something out there that we can control. If they keep giving this type of effort, I’m confident we’ll be back on the right track here in a week.”
Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to WR Mershawn Rice for a 17-10 lead. That drive was aided by an unnecessary roughness penalty on Maryland’s Ahmad McCullough, Purdue would have been facing third-and-long. Later, Maryland’s tight end Dyches dragged the defender to the end zone for a 68-yard touchdown with 14 seconds remaining before the break, tying the game at 17 going into halftime.
The two teams continued its even tug of war and went scoreless in the second half until a wild finish that included a field goal and four touchdowns between both teams in the final 8 minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Terrapins finally broke the 17-all tie on QB’s Tagovailoa’s 11-yard TD pass to Roman Hemby, but Purdue’s Cam Allen blocked the extra point. Purdue’s QB O’Connell, who had fumbled and thrown a pick earlier in the half, calmly guided the Boilermakers 66 yards in 10 plays and threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Durham to put Purdue ahead 24-23.
The Boilermakers then forced a Maryland punt with 2:36 left, and although the Terrapins had all three timeouts left, they left Purdue’s TE Durham all alone over the middle for his long reception that put the ball at the Maryland 2. That set up Devin Mockobee’s 1-yard touchdown run with 1:20 left that made it 31-23.
Maryland responded impressively with its next drive, pulling within two points on an 18-yard scoring pass to WR Corey Dyches, but the Terps ultimately came up one play short. UM appeared to have tied it when QB Taulia Tagovailoa found WR Rakim Jarrett in the corner of the end zone for a 2-point conversion in the final minute. However, offensive lineman Delmar Glaze was flagged for being an ineligible man downfield on what would have been a tying 2-point conversion with 35 seconds left, Tagovailoa threw incomplete on the next attempt. The Boilermakers held on for the win.
QB O’Connell threw for 360 yards and 2 touchdowns for the Boilermakers.
Up Next:
The Terps travel to Indiana next week and face the Hoosiers on Saturday at 3:30 pm. That game will be broadcast on ESPN2 and the Maryland Sports Radio Network.
