On third and four just outside the redzone on Maryland football’s first drive of 2022, Roman Hemby took a handoff to the right and cut to his left through a gaping hole and saw one man to beat. With a juke and burst around the outside, Hemby was able to complete a 33-yard scamper and put the first points of the season on the board en route to a 31-10 win over Buffalo.
“I took my three steps, went through my mesh and I saw nothing but daylight,” Hemby said. “I had to make one cut and, you know, make one person miss and coach Brooks always talks about, you know, ‘Who can make that one person miss?’ because at this level, a lot of people can get to the second level, but who can, you know, ring that bell and score a touchdown?”
Tagovailoa finished his day completing 24 of 34 passes for 290 yards and one interception, while Rakim Jarrett notched six catches for 110 yards and Jeshaun Jones four catches for 70 yards. Maryland got the most done on the ground, as Hemby finished seven rushes for 114 yards and Antwain Littleton notched six carries for 34 yards, each scoring two touchdowns.
Buffalo received the opening kickoff, but a quick stop by Maryland gave the Terps a chance to attack quickly. A five-play, 78-yard drive (1:33) was capped off by Hemby’s touchdown run, giving Maryland a 7-0 lead under three minutes into the contest.
The Terps were only able to score touchdowns on its first drive of each quarter. Three total points came from eight other drives against the Bulls due to miscues and penalties.
“[Our] first victory, especially here at home in the shell, in front of our fans, pleased with the way we were able to do some things today on offense, defense, special teams. But obviously, with game one, there's a lot of things we still got to get corrected,” head coach Mike Locksley said. “There was plenty of things that we can still get cleaned up and like I said, usually you see our biggest jump as a team is from week one to week two. It's kind of been the history and so I expect us to really kind of get some of this stuff cleaned up. It's always better to be able to do it after victory, which we're really fortunate to have gotten it done here in the shell today.”
The Maryland defense continued to do its part through much of the first half, shutting down the run game and holding Buffalo to quarterback scrambles and completions here and there. The Bulls suffered from a missed field goal and turnover on downs when they had chances to strike, keeping a zero on the board. Tagovailoa and the offense, though, were unable to capitalize on mistakes due to mistakes of their own. In the first half, Maryland was called for six penalties, resulting in losses of 57 yards.
“Much like what we weren't good at offense is putting them in third and seven-plus,” Locksley said. “Typically if you're a third and seven-plus, your odds of converting those are not very high up there. Our defense did a good job with first and second down and putting them in third and long and extra long which allows them to kind of pay you the rush to pass or drop eight, which we did something today.”
The Terps were lucky to break through in the second quarter thanks to great field position after a short punt andgoodt return by Tarheeb Still. Littleton showed off his size and strength with a bruising 21-yard rush and punched in from the two-yard line to give Maryland a 14-0 cushion.
Transfer kicker Chad Ryland nailed a 45-yard field goal with ease to give Maryland a 17-0 lead, but a poor drive by the defense allowed Buffalo to get on the board thanks to a 19-yard touchdown by Al-Jay Henderson. Maryland’s offense failed to score with a minute of clock and the ball at midfield, turning the ball over on downs to Buffalo which kneeled it out.
Maryland managed to reignite the offense to start the third quarter as Hemby took the second play from scrimmage 70 yards to the endzone for a touchdown just 39 seconds into the half. His score marked the longest rushing touchdown by a Terp since Anthony McFarland’s 80-yard touchdown against Rutgers on Oct. 5, 2019. Similar to the first half, both teams were unable to generate consistent momentum in the third quarter. Maryland outgained Buffalo 148-15 in the quarter, but had just the one touchdown to show for it and carried a 24-7 lead into the fourth.
The Terps copied each quarter before, scoring a touchdown thanks to Littleton punching in a score on their first drive. Jarrett had an impressive catch and run on the sideline to set the offense up and Corey Dyches had a touchdown called back for stepping out at the one. Buffalo completed an 11-play, 80-yard drive that took up 4:12 in the middle of the fourth against reserve Maryland defenders, coming away with a field goal as the final score of the game.
“I do feel like there's always something to fix,” safety Beau Brade said. “But if we walked out like there was nothing to fix, then we wouldn't have really been able to get better for our next game, Charlotte. But I mean, we had a lot of competitive penalties, which will always happen. Better competitive penalties than some knucklehead, bonehead penalties. I mean, we're gonna be [competitive], especially in the DBS with all the passing interference and holdings. We're gonna be competitive. It's gonna happen. I think the refs had some good calls. So, I mean, we just got to get our eyes better practice.”
In all, Maryland had one turnover via interception as well as eight penalties for 83 yards that led to five team punts against the Bulls. The Terps are back in action on the road next Saturday, taking on the Charlotte 49ers at 3:30 p.m.
© 2005-2022 CBS INTERACTIVE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc.