Malik Washington carried it. He threw for 253 yards and 2 touchdowns, and most of his best work came after halftime, when Maryland put up 27 points. The 1st half looked like more of the same for the Terps. They were shut out in the 1st quarter, trailed 12-7 at the break, and Purdue had controlled the game without pulling away. Purdue played without defensive lineman Rodney Lora, and the defense that gave up 269 rushing yards at Penn State didn't get any sturdier in the 2nd half.
Purdue went off as the home favorite on homecoming and lost outright. The scoring blew past the closing total too: 63 combined points, almost all of the extra coming in a 3rd quarter that went 21-7 to Maryland.
Look at the 3rd quarter and you have the game. Purdue's 3-9 1st half was a team settling for points, and a 5-point halftime lead is not much cushion. Maryland scored 3 touchdowns in 15 minutes and turned that deficit into a 9-point lead. Purdue scored 10 in the 4th but couldn't get the stop it needed in between. For the Boilermakers, that's the hurt the preview talked about: the most winnable game left on the schedule, at home, against a team that hadn't beaten a Big Ten opponent all year.
The finish nearly flipped it. Purdue faced 4th-and-10 from its own 5 with 44 seconds left, found a completion to keep the 2-minute drill going, and kept moving until it reached the Maryland 11 with 5 seconds on the clock. A touchdown there would have been the Illinois game in reverse. The Terps held, and that's the first time all season the 4th quarter went their way. The search didn't turn up Ryan Browne's line for Purdue. The final drive says he moved the ball when he had to, but it ended short.
Both teams are now 3-6. Purdue has lost 3 straight, and its October wins over Illinois and Minnesota are fading fast. Maryland has 1 Big Ten win in 6 tries, but its last 3 games were a 7-point loss, a 3-point loss and a 5-point win. Abdul-Rahim has a team that keeps games close. In West Lafayette it finally held on.
