Maryland Game Notebook
September 14, 2014 11:19 AM | General
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| Teammate Daryl Worley lifts up Josh Lambert in celebration following Lambert's 47-yard field goal on the final play of the game that defeated Maryland 40-37. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo | |
The Mountaineers (2-1) jumped out to a seemingly commanding 28-6 second quarter lead and still led by two possessions heading into the fourth quarter when Maryland was able to capitalize on a pair of special teams breakdowns – one a muffed punt by Jordan Thompson at the WVU 8 and the other a William Likely 69-yard punt return for a touchdown.
At the snap of a finger, a 10-point lead was gone and West Virginia was suddenly leaking lots of oil heading to the finish line.
A third special teams calamity – this one a blocked Josh Lambert 43-yard field goal attempt - gave the football back to the Terps with 4:16 remaining in the game.
But the Mountaineer defense bowed its back, just as it did on Thompson’s fumbled punt by permitting only a field goal instead of a touchdown, and Maryland had to punt the football back to the Mountaineers with 2:35 showing on the game clock.
Nathan Renfro’s punt sailed toward Thompson, who was standing deep in WVU territory, and instead of catching it and risking another fumble, Thompson let the ball hit the turf and watched it roll all the way to the 5 – 64 yards beyond where Renfro kicked it.
The field was completely flipped and Maryland was in terrific shape to get the ball back in great field position if it could force a three-and-out series and a West Virginia punt.
Coach Dana Holgorsen, with three timeouts in his hip pocket, called three consecutive running plays to backup running back Dreamius Smith that netted 15 yards to the 20. Another short Smith run and an unsuccessful bubble screen to Mario Alford to the wide side of the field left the Mountaineers with a difficult third-and-eight situation at the 22-yard line.
This time, Holgorsen went to another fresh back, veteran Dustin Garrison, and the junior made the biggest play in a game full of big plays by escaping a tackler near the line of scrimmage and getting 13 difficult yards to the WVU 35.
Not only was it a new set of downs for the Mountaineers, but it also kept West Virginia from having to punt the football back to Mr. Likely.
More importantly, Garrison’s catch and run now opened up Holgorsen’s entire playbook with much better field position. That afforded quarterback Clint Trickett the opportunity to find Daikiel Shorts working the middle of the field for 17 yards to the Maryland 49.
It was then when Holgorsen used his first timeout with just 36 seconds left in regulation.
Following the stoppage of play, a Garrison 10-yard run put the ball at the Terrapin 39 with the clock still running and Holgorsen hanging onto those two timeouts like they were the last two dollars in his wallet.
“I think we executed perfectly,” said Holgorsen. “Some people may have some choice words for me, but when you play cover two with three safeties deep, the right thing to do was run the ball. I couldn’t be happier for Dustin Garrison and Dreamius Smith, who we told all along that we are going to need them, and they got in there and ran hard.
“The most important thing is to get yards and we got yards; we weren’t afraid to run the ball in those situations.”
Or call a timeout and stop the clock to let Maryland get its defense organized.
Three more short plays netted nine yards, moving the ball to the Maryland 30 with four seconds left on a stopped clock. Holgorsen was not going to call his second timeout so Maryland’s Randy Edsall decided to use one of his to try and ice Lambert, out on the field to attempt a 47-yard, game-winning field goal.
As the ball was about to be snapped, it looked like Lambert was iced, hesitating for a brief moment before collecting himself and getting his steps right, and then calmly nailing the game-winner that sent a jolt of electricity through the entire team.
“I guess I was anticipating before the snap so I took a step and immediately realized, ‘Oh no.’ I just quickly gathered myself and tried to finish my steps and knocked it in,” said Lambert.
“The one thing about Josh, he’s missed a couple this year, but when he has missed he’s come back and made it up,” added Holgorsen. “He’s a guy we have complete confidence in when it comes to making that (kick).”
Last year we saw this same script play out many times – West Virginia jumping out to a first half lead and then self-destructing in the second half and losing. We saw it against Texas Tech, Kansas State, Texas and Iowa State.
And it looked like it was happening once again on Saturday afternoon in College Park until the game’s final drive when some fresh veteran legs (and its cool and in-charge head coach who can clearly think on his feet in stressful situations) got them in a position to win the game.
Perhaps this is the performance that will put the Mountaineers over the top toward bigger things down the road. Time will tell.
Although Maryland struggled last week against USF, this is the exact same Terps team that pummeled West Virginia in Baltimore a year ago. There were 16 starters from last year’s game starting for Maryland on Saturday.
“I don’t know if you guys (media) know this, but those guys on the other side have a pretty good team,” said Holgorsen. “Those guys can move the ball and score points. We gave up plays, they gave up plays, and it was a heck of a game. Two teams wanted to win, two teams that have talent, and two teams that have been building depth for the past four years. The game was back and forth with a lot of plays and very up-tempo – it’s what the Big 12 is going to be about, and we all know that.”
Saturday’s performance is ample proof of just how much the Mountaineers have improved in 12 months; now, hopefully, we’ll see if a much-improved West Virginia team has finally learned how to win tough football games.
Stay tuned.
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