Maryland football coach DJ Durkin faced a situation his offense hadn’t encountered in its first three games. On the Terps’ third play against Purdue on Saturday, quarterback Perry Hills threw his first interception of the season, a bullet into Boilermakers linebacker Markus Bailey’s chest.
After the defense buckled down and Purdue missed a 35-yard field goal, Durkin and offensive coordinator Walt Bell knew how they wanted to start the next drive.
The Terps called a pass on the first play to show their confidence in Hills. It was that type of aggressive mindset the team rode to a 50-7 homecoming win at Maryland Stadium.
“Let’s go,” Durkin said of the staff’s approach after the turnover. “Let’s throw the ball. Let’s show them we believe in them.”
Hills’ first completion on the drive came as he scrambled out of the pocket and dumped the ball down to running back Wes Brown. Baltimore’s Brown, in his first game back from a three-game suspension as part of a punishment under last year’s coaching regime, scampered down the right sideline for 20 yards.
The Terps’ ground game, which finished with 400 total yards, took over from there. Facing a 3rd-and-4 at their own 46-yard line, Hills faked a handoff to wide receiver Teldrick Morgan before pulling the ball down and powering 30 yards up the field. The redshirt senior gained 55 yards on 10 rushes and said he felt healthy after rehabbing a shoulder injury during the bye week.
Two plays later, Hills hit Morgan for the first of the duo’s two touchdown. He led the New Mexico State transfer into the left corner of the end zone, and Morgan made a diving catch for the score.
“After turning the ball over, you kind of just got to forget about it,” Hills said. “You can’t let that take you down into the dumps. You’ve just got to go back and drive down the field and score.”
Instead of kicking the extra point, the Terps then lined up for a two-point conversion with four down lineman and reserve quarterback Caleb Rowe in the shotgun. The redshirt senior had a bunch formation to his left but rolled out of the pocket on a bootleg and tossed the ball to running back Kenneth Goins Jr. for the score.
Maryland had practiced the play during the bye week. If the team had spent time installing the plan, Durkin reasoned, the coaches needed to prove the players’ effort was warranted by calling it in a game.
“We’re not going to play scared, ever,” Durkin said. “When players sense that confidence you have in them, they’re going to play more confident.”
The Terps turned to their backfield for much of the contest, as running back Ty Johnson recorded 204 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries. Hills finished 8-for-13 for 87 yards.
It was a dominant performance, but not a perfect one, which was evident early in the third quarter.
On 2nd-and-5 from inside their own 20, Morgan and running back Lorenzo Harrison flanked Hills in the backfield but collided on the handoff. Purdue defensive tackle Jake Replogle, who Bell highlighted in his midweek press conference as a player the Terps’ blockers would focus on, recovered the botched transition.
The Boilermakers, however, failed on their ensuing fourth-down attempt and couldn’t cut into the Terps’ 29-point lead. When Maryland took over on downs, the team drove 81 yards on six plays in three minutes and two seconds, ending with Hills’ shovel pass to Morgan to widen the Terps’ advantage.
“To go out there and execute the way we did, it’s unbelievable,” Morgan said. “To go out there and to make a statement, I guess to tell the teams that we’re for real.”
