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Northern Illinois Simulation
Well if the real thing is as exciting as the simulation I will be extra salty to miss it. Chris Kelly set the tone for the game with a pickle on the second play from scrimmage. Joel Statham proceeded to complete his first pass as a starter with a 12 yard out to Steve Suter. However, his success was short lived as he over threw Suter in the end zone for a pickle of his own. A three and out by NIU led to a punt and a 65 yard td return for 6. Suter picked up one block and took off untouched down the right sideline with 3:05 remaining in the first quarter. The story of the first quarter was the D. The line was able to contain the "after burner" and ate up the O-line as they tried to establish the run early. The second quarter was night and day for the Maryland D. Josh Haldi began picking apart the young secondary on the first drive of the second quarter for a score in which he was 5 for 6 with the loan miss being a blatant drop by a wide open TE. The drive ended with a Haldi bootleg when he hit Brad Cieslack for a 13 yd td with 3:30 remaining in the half. On the insueing drive A botched HB pass by Josh Allen, where he tried a pass back to Statham, was actually ruled a fumble on a questionable call as it rolled out of bounds some 10 yds behind the line of scrimmage. This brought on a 3rd and 21and led to a punt. A nice return gave NIU the ball on the MD 30. On 3rd and 8 Wesley Jefferson made a huge tackle to force 4th down and a FG for NIU to give them a 10-7 lead with 1:44 to go in the half. Md got the ball back but was ready to punt the ball back after 3 incomplete passes by Statham. Md punted and Dan Sheldon returned the punt for 76 yards for a TD to give them a 17-7 lead with :50 left. Stadium was stunned and quiet and the game has the same eerie feeling of last years game. Statham finished the half 3/16 for 24 yds. The third quarter started off with a disaster as Josh Allen coughed it up on the first play of the second half. Jason Hawkins recovered it on the MD 29 and led to a 27yd FG and a 20-7 lead. The Terps finally gave the fans something to cheer about offensively when Steve Suter beat a NIU corner and made the catch and out ran the D for a 79 yd TD pass to bring the game back to 20-14. As we head to the 4th quarter the passing game picked up as Rich Parson made a beautiful catch getting one foot down along the sideline. The drive stalled and they were forced to punt again after Statham took off on a QB draw only to get popped after gaining the first down and CJ Brooks recovered the fumble 4 yards short. On 4th and 4, Jason Hawkins picked off another Statham pass and returned it to midfield with 2:30 remaining. The FB did fumble on NIU's drive but they were fortunate to have Brad Benson recover it. Merriman came up with a sack on 3rd down to force a 43yd FG attempt that hit the right upright. So the Terps are forced to go 74 yards with :47 on the clock. On 2nd and 10 Statham hit Josh Allen with a screen pass that he took for 74 yards to tie the game. Novak's XP gave the Terps the go ahead point that would lead to the win as NIU's prayers were not answered!!!! What a way to start off the season. What I took from the game. The secondary is young, the running game was shut down in a game where they should have dominated, and all the scores were on the big play. Not sure how they will sustain drives against some of the big willies in the ACC. Needless to say it was a "W" and we will take it. |