Indiana’s season of disappointment continued Saturday afternoon in College Park, Maryland, as the team lost 38-35 to Maryland and fell to 2-6 this season. It was Indiana’s first loss to an unranked opponent since Nov. 24, 2018.
Despite the loss, head coach Tom Allen was proud of his team’s performance through the injuries it has sustained.
“It's tough when you got different quarterbacks and the third different guy starting, and that can be challenging without question,” Allen said. “Really proud of them for that. We just got to get all phases coming together at the same time.”
The Hoosiers came out of the gate slow, going three-and-out on their opening drive. On the ensuing punt, freshman James Evans kicked the ball just 25 yards, and the Terrapins capitalized on the short field, scoring for a quick touchdown to open up the scoring.
Related: COLUMN: It feels like Indiana football should have beaten Maryland, but is that true?
After going down 14-0 early, Indiana fought back to take a 17-14 lead in the third quarter.
Indiana showed signs of life early in the third quarter when graduate student running back Stephen Carr ran the ball 66 yards down the middle of the field for a touchdown to put the team up 17-14. It was his longest run of the season, 40 yards more than his previous long of 26.
Carr and the offense had their best game of the season in freshman quarterback Donaven McCulley’s first career start. The Hoosiers scored a season-high 35 points.
McCulley completed 14-of-25 passes for 242 yards, two touchdowns and did not throw any interceptions. He had the second most passing yards by an Indiana quarterback this season and Allen said he was impressed with McCulley’s showing.
“Donaven, he just made some good throws, gave us a chance on a couple of deep balls,” Allen said. “Don is a good quarterback, he just needs to play. I've said all along he got a real talent but he's young, he's really, really young”
While the Indiana offense had an unusually strong outing, the defense had an uncharacteristically poor performance and gave up on big plays all afternoon.
The Hoosiers gave up 498 total yards to the Terrapins on Saturday, the second-highest total of the season. The Terrapins’ 38 points ties the second-highest total Indiana has given up this season.
No matter what the Hoosiers did on offense, the Terrapins always answered when they got the ball back.
“It’s just really frustrating,” Allen said. “Just hard to be able to win on the road when you just give up those kinds of plays.”
Indiana’s inability to generate takeaways in addition to giving up big plays hurt his team in the game, Allen added.
The team dropped its fourth-consecutive game and snapped a three-game win streak against Maryland. The Terrapins beat the Hoosiers Saturday for the first time since 2017.
Indiana now sits at 2-6 this season with its preseason hopes of a trip to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl a distant memory, and its hopes of making a bowl game on life support.
Indiana would need an undefeated month of November to make the postseason, including a win next week against No. 6 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
One year after the Hoosiers reached new highs as a program, they are unsatisfied with the way their 2021 campaign has gone.
“I expect to score like every drive,” Carr said. “I know that's not reasonable, but, you know what I mean. I'm not satisfied right now. It’s a close game. This will hurt a whole lot.”
