</div></div><p>COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Consider the big freshman, walking boot protecting his left foot, crutches supporting his weight on the visitor’s sideline at SECU Stadium. John Mills left this game hurt in the third quarter, his Washington Huskies trailing at the time by three scores on the road, the left guard’s injury one more rotten development on another miserable evening in the time zone where they never win.</p><p>You couldn’t have pictured him then, limping off the field, as he was later Saturday night: smiling and shouting and greeting teammates as they celebrated a most improbable outcome, pain replaced by joy.</p><p>Washington beat Maryland, 24-20, and that wouldn’t sound so improbable at all, were it not for the Terrapins’ 20-0 lead midway through the third quarter, and the Huskies’ utter lifelessness to that point. The defense couldn’t get off the field. Demond Williams Jr. missed open receivers. Jonah Coleman had only six carries, four of which gained 3 or fewer yards. The whole team looked flat, and in one of the handful of games they were most expected to win.</p><p>It was the most disappointing result of Jedd Fisch’s tenure, until it became one of the most encouraging. It was confirmation of lacking progress, until it became stark evidence to the contrary. It was a no-show, an all-time clunker, until it became the Huskies’ largest road comeback in 32 years.</p><p>“Special game,” Fisch said, praising his team for the confidence they showed in the halftime locker room.</p><p>“You can either feel a locker room that looks down, a locker room that looks disappointed, a locker room that looks discouraged,” Fisch said, “or you can see a locker room that says, ‘they just played 30 minutes, now we play 30 minutes, and now these 30 minutes we’re going to go win.’ … There was a little hooting and hollering, a little bounce in the step.”</p><p>Yet Maryland used the first possession of the third quarter to turn 13-0 into 20-0, and the Huskies didn’t score a touchdown until the fourth.</p><p>What made this comeback most remarkable is that Washington didn’t seize upon any particular breakdown (save, perhaps, for the Terrapins’ refusal to run the ball with a multi-score lead). There was no single turning point, no quick fix. The Huskies simply started moving the ball and stopped allowing Maryland to, like they all decided to start playing at once. The Terrapins’ only three punts came on consecutive possessions — one late in the third, two in the fourth — and Washington scored touchdowns after each.</p><p>“Don’t try to force ourselves back in the game,” Williams said of UW’s mindset. “I feel like the game just came to us.”</p><p>Maryland and freshman quarterback Malik Washington converted 7-of-11 on third down in the first half, but only one of its final five. UW converted 4-of-5 in the second half, including a third-and-9 and third-and-10.</p><p>The Huskies failed to score on four first-half possessions, but scored on all four in the second half, minus the one that ended with Williams sticking his knee in the ground.</p><p>What happened?</p><p>“Maryland had to do with the start,” Fisch said, answering a question about travel contributing to another sleepy first half on the road. “I think Maryland’s a very good football team.” Whether that proves true in the coming weeks, we can’t know, but it is a fact that Washington’s final touchdown represented the first lead for a Maryland opponent this season, and that the Huskies’ 24 consecutive points were seven more than the Terrapins had allowed in any of their first four games.</p><p>The Terrapins schemed to take star receiver Denzel Boston away, Williams said, rolling their coverage to prevent deep throws. He was looking for Boston — who appeared open — on a first-quarter interception, Williams’ first of the season.</p><p>“They gave us some looks we weren’t really prepared for, changing it up, trying to get Denzel out of the game,” Williams said. “They continued to just give us a variety of looks, and once we got kind of honed in on what they were doing, we kind of figured it out.”</p><p>Fisch said Maryland “did a really nice job of replicating parts of the plan that Coach (Matt) Patricia had in place,” referencing Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, whose group held the Huskies without a touchdown last week. “Rotating a safety over the top of the receiver, even though it looked like man coverage. They wound up getting a couple doubles.”</p><p>But it gave Williams access to throws underneath, and he took better advantage in the second half. Sophomore tight end Decker DeGraaf had his best game, catching all six of his targets for 62 yards. The screen game helped Coleman catch a team-high eight passes for 47 yards, including an 11-yarder that set up UW’s final score. Freshmen wideouts Dezmen Roebuck (four catches, 61 yards) and Raiden Vines-Bright (three catches, 29 yards) got involved.</p><p>So did Boston, eventually, finishing with a team-high 71 yards on six catches, one of them a 3-yard touchdown on a slant that cut Maryland’s lead to 20-10 early in the fourth quarter. Fisch said he thought Washington’s tempo took Maryland out of some of its double-teams, and Boston became more available. Gains of 17 and 26 by Boston aided the Huskies in their go-ahead touchdown drive, capped by Coleman’s 1-yard run with 3:21 to play. On the drive prior, Williams completed a 34-yard touchdown pass to Roebuck, the quarterback’s longest pass of the game.</p><p>Fisch credited the defensive staff for their own second-half adjustments, “mixing some coverages so it wasn’t as clean of a picture” for Maryland’s freshman quarterback, who completed 30-of-49 for 219 yards and completed only three passes longer than five yards in the fourth quarter. Malik Washington threw three consecutive incompletions to conclude the Terps’ final possession.</p><p>Playing without Zach Durfee (elbow), the Huskies’ edge rushers pushed the pocket more as the game progressed, with Isaiah Ward and Jacob Lane each logging a pair of pressures against a Maryland passing game that largely relies on quicker throws. The Terrapins ran the ball only 20 times for 55 yards, and, stunningly, only four times for 10 yards in the second half.</p><p>UW linebacker Jacob Manu proved a valuable addition to the Huskies’ banged-up defense, making six tackles, including a TFL. More than once, he erased a quick throw into the flat with a physical stop.</p><p>“We knew, second quarter, that we were going to win this game,” Manu said. “Coach Fisch told us to keep swinging and keep fighting. We knew the offense was going to get it together. Defense, we just had to keep making plays, and we ended up coming up with the dub.”</p><div class="kg-card kg-button-card kg-align-center"><a href="#ghost-comments-root" class="kg-btn kg-btn-accent">Leave a comment</a></div><p>Williams seemed hesitant to run from the pocket early in this game, but finished with 13 rushes for 57 yards — and netted 67, minus sack yards, to go with 275 yards passing — including a 10-yard keeper on the final possession to move the chains and allow for victory formation.</p><p>Mills wasn’t the only injured celebrant. Carver Willis, Washington’s starting left tackle, made the trip but watched from the sideline, a large brace covering his lower right leg. Senior cornerback Tacario Davis missed his third consecutive game with a rib injury. Both wore broad smiles on the field afterward, the Huskies reveling in the northeast corner with a gathering of supporters in purple.</p><p>Roebuck high-fived fans in the front row. Williams hugged his family. Coleman grabbed a phone and filmed a selfie video, offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty wrapping his arm around the tailback’s neck.</p><p>They return home with their first Big Ten road victory and a 4-1 record.</p><p>Could you fathom a less likely result, given only the third-quarter scoreboard?</p><p>“I think this team is very close,” Fisch said. “This team is young, and young guys that don’t experience some of these things before just feel like, ‘hey, we’re going to go out and win.’ And that’s what they did, which is pretty awesome.”</p><p><em><strong>Subscribe to On Montlake’s YouTube channel</strong> for behind-the-scenes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@onmontlake?ref=onmontlake.com">video and analysis</a>.</em></p><p><em><strong>Already a paid subscriber?</strong> Upgrade to <a href="https://www.onmontlake.com/account">On Montlake’s “Friend of the Program” tier </a>to support independent journalism, access our monthly Zoom call and receive priority for mailbag questions.</em></p><p><em><strong>Have you checked out</strong> the <a href="https://substack.com/chat/1456757?ref=onmontlake.com">On Montlake subscriber chat?</a> Paid subscribers can use it as a forum to discuss … well, whatever you want.</em></p><p><em><strong>Interested in sponsorship?</strong> <a href="mailto:onmontlake@substack.com">Contact me here</a> to discuss how we might be able to work together.</em></p><p><strong>— Christian Caple, On Montlake</strong></p></body>
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