All season long, we’ve watched Sam Hollenbach mature into a quarterback who looked like a fifth-year senior who knew how to manage the Terrapins’ offense effectively without making costly mistakes.
But in the final regular-season game with everything on the line, Hollenbach hardly looked like himself, reverting to old habits and throwing costly interceptions. He in advertently saved his worst game for last.
And even though the defense never gave Hollenbach and the offense a chance to spur a comeback in the second half, the quarterback’s first-half management was as bad as it has been all season.
Wake Forest only capitalized on one of Hollenbach’s three interceptions, but the turnovers were momentum-killers, crowd-quieters and point-shavers. Hollenbach’s second interception came inside the red zone on third down, where a field goal would have made the score 14-10. But instead, Hollenbach was pressured, and as he rolled to his left, he made a terrible decision to throw the ball.
“That’s a situation where I should probably just take a sack,” Hollenbach said. “I was trying to throw that ball out of bounds and got hit or something. My arm – I couldn’t throw that ball how I wanted to, and it ends up just looking like I threw the ball right to the guy.”
During the Terps’ five-game winning streak, Hollenbach threw just two interceptions. In the Terps’ losses to Boston College and Wake Forest, he threw five. Do the math.
Coach Ralph Friedgen said he thought his quarterback came out and played much better in the second half (which he did). But Friedgen continually mentioned how disappointed he was with that second interception.
After the game, Hollenbach’s tone was somber, and he struggled to speak. It was not an emotional struggle, but it was obvious he was frustrated with himself when discussing the game. He said he was so down after the game that he couldn’t even say the Lord’s Prayer.
“I kinda wish I was just back in my room as soon as the game was over,” Hollenbach said. “I just wanna be back in my room. … I don’t think I even moved for a good 15 minutes after the game. I just sat in front of my locker. That’s kinda how the attitude is right now with the team.”
With Byrd Stadium as packed and excited as it had been all season, Hollenbach engineered a perfect opening drive. But as the night went on, Hollenbach missed his targets, overthrowing receivers on numerous occasions.
When Hollenbach was on the sideline, it was probably as if he was watching a game of Madden – the Demon Deacons ran the same annoying plays, which couldn’t be stopped, over and over and over, leading to frustration and aggravation. That was what the Terps’ offense was like at times this year – it couldn’t be stopped with the short screens and swing passes.
We’ve seen Hollenbach execute that to perfection. We’ve seen him throw the deep pass, we’ve seen him use his legs to win a game, and we’ve seen him run a two-minute offense to win a game.
Saturday night we saw him make some bad decisions. And he picked the worst game to show us that.
Contact sports editor Andrew Zuckerman at zuckermandbk@gmail.com.
