Middle Tennessee’s spread offense piled up yardage and its no-huddle attack tired out Maryland’s defense.
Nothing the Blue Raiders did, however, hurt as much as the mistakes the Terrapins inflicted upon themselves.
Alan Gendreau made a 19-yard field goal as time expired and Middle Tennessee rallied for a 32-31 victory over turnover-prone Maryland on Saturday.
“I would think this is the biggest win ever for our program on the road,” said Blue Raiders coach Rick Stockstill, whose team amassed 438 offensive yards. “To come into an ACC stadium like this and beat a very, very good Maryland team is a tremendous accomplishment.”
Dwight Dasher completed 27 of 44 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a score for Middle Tennessee (2-1). Dasher was 4 for 4 for 69 yards on the decisive drive, an eight-play, 73-yard march that began with 1:30 left after Maryland’s Nick Ferrara went wide right on a 42-yard field goal attempt.
“I was (saying) everybody needs to pick up their blocks and everybody needs to make plays and we got to get down there and win this game,” said Dasher. “I told the line to give me some time so I could make some plays and they did that.”
Ferrara’s late miss set the stage for Dasher’s heroics but followed a familiar script: Middle Tennessee exploiting Maryland’s many miscues.
Da’Rel Scott rushed for 117 yards and a touchdown for the Terrapins, but fumbled twice. Maryland quarterback Chris Turner was 19 for 30 for 288 yards, threw two touchdowns and an interception. Overall, Maryland committed four turnovers leading to 17 Blue Raiders points and offsetting 446 offensive yards.
“You lose when you fumble the ball,” Terrapins coach Ralph Friedgen said. “It doesn’t matter what your stats are. You lose games, that’s the stat I’m looking at. … To me, there’s no excuse for fumbling. I don’t care what the deal is Hold on to that ball.”
Maryland (1-2) took a 7-0 lead on Scott’s 48-yard run with 6:46 left in the first quarter. But Middle Tennessee turned a couple of turnovers into touchdowns to take a 13-7 lead.
Davin Meggett tipped a pass into the hands of Blue Raiders safety Derrick Crumpton at the Terrapins’ 29-yard line. Five plays later, Dasher dove in for the score from 3 yards away. Maryland’s A.J. Francis, who committed an offsides penalty on fourth-and-1 to prolong the drive, blocked the extra point.
Scott fumbled on Maryland’s next play, Chris McCoy recovering at the Middle Tennessee 30. Dasher found Sancho McDonald for a diving 7-yard TD catch, 1:54 into the second quarter.
After the Terrapins had a 32-yard field goal blocked, Maryland’s Travis Ivey recovered Dasher’s fumble, setting up Meggett’s 1-yard touchdown run with 1:19 left in the first half.
On the first possession of the second half, Turner directed a five-play, 74-yard drive that was capped by a 37-yard pass to an open Torrey Smith down the left sideline for Maryland. But Middle Tennessee cut the lead to 21-20 with 6:25 left in the quarter on a 6-yard TD run by Desmond Gee.
Crumpton recovered Scott’s second fumble, allowing Middle Tennessee to take a 23-21 lead. The Blue Raiders had to settle for a go-ahead 27-yard field goal by Gendreau with 48 seconds remaining in the third quarter after a video replay review wiped away an apparent 11-yard touchdown strike from Dasher to Garrett Andrews, whose left knee was ruled out of bounds.
“We knew they were dangerous. We knew they could do a lot of things offensively,” said Maryland linebacker Deege Galt. Defensively, we knew we had to bring our A-game. We just made too many mistakes. We can’t beat teams like that when we make mistakes.”
Early in the fourth quarter, Turner found Smith for a 64-yard touchdown and a 28-23 Maryland lead. Middle Tennessee answered when Dasher threw a 32-yard TD pass to Andrews on fourth down with 9:06 left for a 29-28 lead.
Ferrara kicked a 42-yard field goal with 6:14 left to put Maryland up.
