Maryland QB C.J. Brown is able to escape the pressure in Saturday night’s win over UConn.
EAST HARTFORD – This was much different that the season opening game two weeks earlier. There was an energy at Rentschler Field that you could feel. The crowd of nearly 39,000 roared and filled the stadium with sound when the University of Connecticut made big plays.
And there were some big plays from the Huskies – two fourth down stops by the defense of the explosive University of Maryland, an interception and a touchdown.
But in the end, the visiting Terps were simply too much. For the third straight, Maryland had over 500 yards of offense. Quarterback C.J. Brown could not be contained and the Huskies fell to 0-2 after a 32-21 loss Saturday night.
Coach Randy Edsall, who spent 12 years and won 70 games with Connecticut before leaving for Maryland in the days after the 2010 Fiesta Bowl, returned to Rentschler Field and left with a victory.
Unlike the dispiriting loss to Towson University two weeks earlier, there were signs of optimism from the Huskies. Still, head coach Paul Pasquolini and his players were left to discuss how they will attack the remaining nine games of their schedule beginning with yet another challenging home game against No. 11 Michigan next Saturday night at 8 p.m. at Rentschler Field.
“We didn’t have enough plays on stopping C.J. Brown,” Pasqualoni said. “We had a hard time tackling tonight. We didn’t have a sack against him tonight. It was frustrating. We just didn’t make enough big plays. Give Maryland credit, they made more plays than we did tonight.”
For 30 minutes, the Huskies were able to hold Maryland at bay. Twice, they stopped Maryland on fourth down-and-1 plays in UConn territory. Taylor Mack intercepted a Brown pass.
With a no huddle offense that helped keep the Maryland defense from substituting personnel, the Huskies marched 54 yards on six plays on its first drive to take a 7-0 lead. The big play was a 21-yard pass from Whitmer to Shakim Phillips to the Maryland 12-yard line. Lyle McCombs took it in from the five yard line.
Phillips had a big day, catching a career high 10 passes for 178 yards and a 75-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter that he caught in the open field and outran a defender to the end zone. “I have a nice connection with him,” Whitmer said. “But we need to be more balanced.”
Whitmer threw for a career-high 349 yards, completing 29 of 46 passes. But he was intercepted twice. On the ground, the Huskies struggled, rushing for just 34 yards. Whitmer was sacked five times for 42 yards.
“It’s very frustrating,” Pasqualoni said. “It’s not that we’re not working on it. I don’t see enough space. You have to get the man on defense moving and give our backs some room to run. We have just not been able to get that going.”
In the second quarter, Maryland began to show its explosiveness. Brown broke through the UConn defensive line and scampered away with a 41-yard touchdown run that capped a 80-yard Terp drive in four plays that took just 80 seconds.
Maryland made it 10-7 on a 29-yard field goal from Brad Craddock with a 40-yard drive that took five plays and another 80 seconds.
Connecticut tied the game at 10-10 with a 33-yard field goal from Chad Christen with 4:05 remaining. McCombs had a 14-yard run on the drive and Whitmer hit Deshon Foxx with a 28-yard completion to the Maryland 20.
The Huskies nearly escaped the first half with a tie game but Brown hit Lavern Jacobs with a short pass out of the backfield and Jacobs scampered down the sideline to the UConn 1 with 8 seconds left. Craddock hit a 21-yard field goal to give Maryland a 13-10 halftime lead.
The play by Jacobs was one that Pasqualoni thought could have been stopped earlier. “One missed assignment,” he lamented afterwards.
In the third quarter, Maryland extended its lead to 20-10. Brown ran for 27 yards and hit Malcolm Culmer for a 26-yard gain to the UConn 27. Two plays later, Brown hit Stefon Diggs with a 12-yard touchdown pass.
Brown completed 15 of 28 passes for 277 yards and one touchdown. On the ground, he ran for a game-high 122 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries.
“You saw what he did, he runs well, throws well, and distracts the defense,” Esdall said. “He has some real good weapons with them. The line kept him on his feet and he did a great job. We have great skill players and they all contributed.”
The Huskies cut the lead to seven on a 34-yard field goal from Christsen but the Terps began to assert themselves with a 49-yard interception return for a touchdown from Dexter McDougle – his second interception of the game – for a 27-13 lead.
Maryland picked up a safety on a sack by Marcus Whitfield of Whitmer in the end zone early in the fourth quarter.
“It’s tough. We’re all competitive and we all want to win,” Whitmer said. “We did a good job of coming out and giving it our best effort.”
Linebacker Yarwin Smallwood said, “It’s tough. We’ve been working hard all offseason. We just have to make sure we’re working toward the next game.”
NOTES: Whitmer’s 75-yard touchdown pass to Phillips in the fourth quarter was the longest pass of his career, and the longest pass for UConn since Dan Orlovksy had a 90-yard touchdown to Jason Williams against Temple in 2004.
Whitmer went over 300 yards passing for the second time in his UConn career. His 349 yards were a new career-high, the previous mark was 333 against Western Michigan on Sept. 22, 2012.
Maryland is 3-0 for the first time since 2001. UConn is 0-2 to begin the season for the first time since 2002 – their first season in Division I-A when UConn lost to Boston College and Georgia Tech in their first two contests.
Maryland 32, Connecticut 21
At East Hartford
Maryland (3-0) 0 13 14 5 – 32
Connecticut (0-2) 7 3 3 8 — 21
First quarter
C: Lyle McCombs 5 run (Chad Christen kick), 10:21
Second quarter
M: C.J. Brown 41 run (Brad Craddock kick), 11:10
M: Craddock 29 FG, 7:55
C: Christen 33 FG, 4:05
M: Craddock 21 FG, 0:00
Third quarter
M: Stefon Diggs 12 pass from Brown (Craddock kick), 9:04
C: Christen 34 FG, 6:02
M: Dexter McDougle 49 interception (Craddock kick), 2:07
Fourth quarter
M: Safety: Whitfield tackles Whitmer in end zone, 8:43
M: Craddock 40 FG, 4:48
C: Shak Phillips 75 pass from Whitmer (Geremy Davis pass from Whitmer), 4:26
A: 38,916
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