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Late blocked field goal and touchdown propels Maryland football over USC, 29-28

Late blocked field goal and touchdown propels Maryland football over USC, 29-28

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With just under two minutes remaining and USC set to kick a game-sealing field goal up six points, the unthinkable happened.

Maryland football linebacker Donnell Brown got his hands on the attempt, and the block was returned into USC territory by defensive back Glen Miller.

The Terps scored five plays, 47 yards and 48 seconds later to take an improbable lead with under a minute left. The advantage held for the remainder of the contest — despite Maryland’s various miscues, mistakes and gaffes, it eked out a season-saving 29-28 victory at SECU Stadium on Saturday night.

“Really proud of the guys, really proud of the coaching staff [that] did a great job preparing these guys,” head coach Michael Locksley said. “They kept dialing and figuring out how to answer the things that were taking place.”

The early action was not characterized by stellar offensive performances, as both secondaries stepped up early. The Terps contained USC (3-4) well on its first drive, but the Trojans equally stymied Maryland’s offense on its first two drives.

In his second game calling offensive plays, Locksley rejected the run, solely opting to pass the ball on the team’s first two drives. Only on the second play of the Terps’ third drive did they hand the ball off to Nolan Ray, for a 3-yard gain.

Instead, the Terps’ offense was strewn with quick bubble screens and short play-action throws. Those didn’t produce explosive results, as Maryland (4-3) scored just seven points in the opening half.

Meanwhile, USC settled in nicely after its second drive. It drove into Maryland territory before being forced into a 52-yard field goal that it missed. But an illegal Terps substitution gave the Trojans a more manageable fourth down, which it converted.

The ensuing sequence saw Moss find wide receiver Kyron Hudson for a 22-yard touchdown, the game’s first score.

Similar mistakes built up slowly over the course of the half — and the game — as the Terps accumulated seven infractions for 60 yards on the night.

After its first touchdown — a corner fade to Octavian Smith Jr. — Maryland had difficulty building on its momentum. A missed 52-yard field goal from Jack Howes and a fourth-and-2 stuff on running back Roman Hemby left points on the board.

The start to the second half nearly sealed the Terps’ demise, as they turned the ball over on downs after chewing over three minutes of clock. But Moss underthrew a pass to Zachariah Branch on the very next drive, resulting in a Lavain Scruggs interception and return that set Maryland up at the USC 18-yard line.

“We’ve created some depth where these young guys are forced in there, and I gotta live with some of the mistakes,” Locksley said. “But right now, they are doing everything we’ve asked of them.”

The very next play resulted in a Tai Felton receiving touchdown, bringing the Terps within a score.

“That’s the beauty of our system, is that we have answers,” Locksley said. “If [USC is] going to play man and we’ve got a group — Octavian Smith and Tai Felton and these tight ends have to make these plays … they did today when we needed them to.”

Yet, Maryland failed to take the lead until until very late. USC was forced to punt on the next drive, and the Terps had no trouble driving the length of the field. But red zone problems got the best of Maryland once again, as Edwards threw an interception in the end zone on fourth down.

The Terps clawed their way back nonetheless, forcing USC into a punt with 6:37 left to give itself another chance. After another botched fourth down play on the ensuing drive, things looked hopeless for Maryland.

“It’s like a little slugfest, Coach Locks might say, [a] little slugfest where we’re just taking punches [and] we’re giving them out,” linebacker Donnell Brown said. “At the end of the day, we stood up and they stood down.”

But that’s when the magic occurred — and Maryland’s first Big Ten win resulted in an emphatic Saturday night storming of SECU Stadium.

Three things to know

1. Late chaos took place. After the Terps’ late score with just 53 seconds left, USC had a prime opportunity to drive down for a game-winning field goal attempt. It got all the way down to Maryland’s 40-yard line before a 4th-and-2 incomplete pass with 11 seconds left sealed the victory for the home team.

“I slammed my helmet on the field,” Brown said. “I was just so happy, because that was the breakthrough that we’ve been waiting for for a very long time.”

2. A highlight-reel grab. USC wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane had the best catch of the day, bar none, as his 15-yard one-handed reception for the team’s second score might be in contention for catch of the year. He wildly contorted his body around Maryland defensive back Perry Fisher before reeling it in.

3. Smith sees increased utilization. Aside from his first touchdown reception of the 2024 season, it was encouraging for Maryland fans to see the shifty junior produce well. He finished the day with career-highs in both catches (8) and yards (84).

“I think KP told me he had over 100 [yards], Tai had a bunch of touches,” Edwards said. “Octavian Smith had a hell of a catch there in the first touchdown in the first half. So just continue to feed them the ball.”


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Freddie Freeman slowly gets up after turning his ankle while running to first base against the Padres on Thursday.

Dodgers remain confident Freddie Freeman will be ready for NLDS

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DENVER — As he hobbled across the field at Dodger Stadium to talk to reporters on Thursday night, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman wore three notable things.

A walking boot. A National League West championship T-shirt. And, most importantly in the wake of his ankle injury in that night’s division-clinching win, a relieved and grateful smile.

“It’s like a grapefruit,” Freeman said of the swelling in his sprained, but not broken, right ankle. “But they’re pretty optimistic that I should be able to go by Saturday in the playoffs. That’s what I’m banking on.”

A day later, the Dodgers seemed confident in that possibility, as well.

When the team filed out of its Champagne-soaked clubhouse Thursday and headed to the airport for a late-night flight to Denver, where they opened their series against the Colorado Rockies with a 11-4 win Friday, Freeman stayed back in Southern California.

Even though postgame X-rays on his ankle were negative, he and the team decided it wouldn’t be wise to subject him to two flights for a series he probably wouldn’t have played in anyway.

Instead, Freeman will remain in the Southland this weekend, getting treatment on his injury in hopes of being ready for the start of the National League Division Series next Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

“Obviously it’s really, really swollen, but they said once they get the fluid out, I should be able to go by Saturday,” said Freeman, who used crutches during the Dodgers’ clubhouse celebration but was walking with just the boot later in the night.

“Fortunately enough, we have some time off now to heal this thing,” he added. “I’m optimistic.”

Manager Dave Roberts took that optimism one step further on Friday, saying that he can’t “see any world” where Freeman isn’t in the lineup for the start of the postseason.

“He’s just such a warrior,” Roberts said. “And he’s gonna do anything he can to post.”

Freddie Freeman slowly gets up after turning his ankle while running to first base against the Padres on Thursday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Freeman’s sprained ankle served as the latest hardship in what has been an arduous season for the 35-year-old slugger.

On the field, Freeman has had his least productive season in almost a decade. While his .282 batting average and .854 on-base-plus-slugging percentage are still well above league average, they’ve represented his worst marks since 2015. His 89 RBIs will mark his second-lowest total in a full season since 2017. And in recent weeks, as he has continued to battle a broken right middle finger he suffered in August, the left-handed hitter had been visibly frustrated with his swing, batting just .241 with five extra-base hits in his past 15 games.

None of that, however, has compared to the adversity Freeman faced off the field.

In late July, his 3-year-old son, Max, was temporarily paralyzed by a frightening case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, forcing Freeman to step away from the team for eight games. After spending the last two months in physical therapy, Max only began walking on his own again last week — a gratifying milestone for the Freeman family, but also a reflection of the difficult journey they’ve faced during the second half of the Dodgers’ season.

“Every day is better and better for Max and that’s all I can really ask for,” Freeman said. “But yeah, the last couple months have been trying.”

That’s why, even though he’ll miss the final games of the regular season and have to spend his run-up to the playoff rehabbing his ankle, Freeman was still upbeat Thursday night.

“It’s all put in perspective now,” he said. “Yeah, tough couple of months. But when you look up and see that [we are] NL West champions and Max is walking now, things are OK.”

The same can seemingly be said for his sprained ankle, as well.


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Emmet Kenney’s field goal lifts Stanford football to first ACC conference win

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As the Stanford offense came over to the sideline on a fourth-and-9 on Friday, with 37 seconds remaining, it appeared the Cardinal were about to let another game slip away. The JMA Wireless Dome was rocking, and sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels was struggling with accuracy issues all night.

But pre-snap, Daniels glanced to the left and spotted the redshirt sophomore receiver Elic Ayomanor in one-on-one coverage. From there, the signal-caller from Georgia knew where to go with the ball.

“We just tried to isolate Elic,” said Stanford head coach Troy Taylor after the game. “We talked about if it’s a zone, we have a concept to the three-receiver side of the field. If it’s man [coverage] with Elic, we got to win. He’s got to win.”

The six-foot-two receiver from Alberta, Canada certainly won his matchup, catching a 27-yard back-shoulder fade to keep the Cardinal’s hopes alive, and put the team in field goal position.

After running a couple plays where they tried to center the ball, senior Emmet Kenney kicked a 39-yard field goal straight through the uprights to give Stanford a 26-24 win over Syracuse — its first conference win as a member of the ACC. 

But it is not just Ayomanor, Daniels or Kenney that should be given credit for Stanford’s victory.

The Cardinal gave up just 26 rushing yards to Syracuse while also forcing Orange quarterback Kyle McCord into throwing two picks.

The defensive line tandem of senior Anthony Franklin and junior Zach Rowell controlled the line of scrimmage, quickly plugging up gaps in the offensive line throughout the game. Moreover, for the first time in Taylor’s time on the Farm, Stanford demonstrated the ability to generate a pass rush.  

Junior outside linebacker David Bailey displayed why he was such a highly touted prospect out of high school, tallying two sacks and generating pressures all game against the Syracuse offensive line. In total, Stanford’s defense generated seven tackles for loss in Friday’s game — and even got a touchdown with Mitch Leigber’s pick-six in the third quarter.

“They wanted to pressure and they wanted to take away their RPOs (run-past options) to a really good RPO team,” Taylor said. “[McCord] looks like a guy that’s played a lot of football, and so at times, we were able to hurry him a little bit. The other part of it is I felt we stopped the run game. Kind of made them one-dimensional.”

But Stanford ran into trouble late in the fourth quarter. Up 23-17 with nearly five minutes remaining, Taylor elected to accept a holding penalty after Syracuse failed to convert on a third-and-8 near midfield. However, the Orange converted the subsequent third-and-18 to keep its drive alive, eventually reaching the end zone to take the first lead of the game.

Despite the offense sputtering, particularly in the second half, Taylor instilled belief in his players that they would walk out of upstate New York victorious.

“I said, ‘Hey we’re going to drive down, we’re gonna spot the ball in the middle of the field, and we’re going to kick a field goal and get out of here.’” Taylor said. “They all yelled, and obviously were able to do that.”

After performances that fell short of power-conference level, including losing to Sacramento State on Sept. 16, Friday’s early-season victory against Syracuse is an indication that Stanford’s rebuild is on the right track. 

Other Notes

  • Fifth-year defensive tackle Tobin Phillips did not travel with the team to Syracuse. Phillips was injured in the first quarter of Stanford’s game against Cal Poly on Sept. 7.
  • Update: Junior receiver Mudia Reuben limped off the field at the end of the first quarter. He did not return to the game, and was seen with crutches and boot on his left leg post-game.
  • Update: According to Ben Parker of CardinalSportsReport, freshman quarterback Elijah Brown is out 4-6 weeks with a hand injury. Brown was not in uniform on Friday during Stanford’s game against Syracuse.
  • Despite being a game-time decision, graduate defensive lineman Clay Patterson did see action against the Orange.
  • Stanford’s starting offensive line remained the same as week two, with the exception that fifth-year Levi Rogers started at center.


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Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa leaves field with concussion after collision with Bills’ Damar Hamlin

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Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was ruled out of Thursday night’s game with the Buffalo Bills because of a concussion after colliding with defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.

Tagovailoa, who has a history of dealing with head injuries, remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands, appeared to smile and departed for the locker room.

The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.

Bills Dolplhins Football
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) and Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin (3) collide during the second half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Tagovailoa suffered a concussion on the play.

Lynne Sladky / AP


“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”  

Tagovailoa positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards.

He signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left the game with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, which held as the final score. 

“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”  

Tagovailoa was hurt on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.

He wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at Tagovailoa as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.

Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.  

Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. 

Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.

“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”  

Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.

He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.

The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.

Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.

His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season.

Going into last season, Tagovailoa added muscle and spent time studying jiu-jitsu in an effort to learn how to fall more safely and try to protect himself against further injury.


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Kyle Larson steers through Turn 4 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Darlington Raceway, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in Darlington, S.C.

Don’t look for surprises in the postseason as power programs dominate field

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Kyle Larson steers through Turn 4 during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Darlington Raceway, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in Darlington, S.C.Matt Kelley/AP

DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — NASCAR’s regular season finished with a pair of surprises in winless drivers Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe pulling off unexpected victories at Daytona and Darlington.

Don’t look for more stunners when the playoffs start next week and NASCAR’s power programs, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske, dominate the grid with 11 of the 16 drivers who will chase the championship next Sunday in Atlanta.

Throw in Burton and owner Wood Brothers’ connection with Penske, and 75% of the field has blue-blood connections to research, equipment and advanced technology that give their racers most everything they need to succeed.

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“I mean, the way I look at it is we got nothing to lose, right?” Briscoe said after his dramatic, late, three-wide pass to win the Southern 500. “If you can win at Darlington, you can win anywhere on the schedule.”

Jana Dennis
Quarterback Hunter Johnson was the leading rusher on the night for Pine River, scoring the Bucks' lone touchdown midway through the 3rd quarter. 

Briscoe gave soon-to-be-shuttered Stewart-Haas Racing, once a power program with championships from Tony Stewart in 2011 and Kevin Harvick in 2014, a final chance to add to that legacy when he passed Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain for the lead, then outran Kyle Busch at the end.

History says it won’t be easy for Briscoe and others non-power players to celebrate in Phoenix when the championship will be awarded in two months.

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Drivers from Hendrick Motorsports, JGR and Team Penske have won the past 10 titles.

Hendrick’s lineup features past champions Larson and Chase Elliott along with William Byron and Alex Bowman.

“You work hard all year long to get stage wins, to get race wins to position yourself in the playoffs,” said Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion who will open as the top seed in Atlanta. “Just keep on doing what we’re doing. Our cars have been fast. Keep it up and hopefully, we can advance on through.”

All four Gibbs drivers reached the playoffs, with Joe Gibbs’ grandson, Ty Gibbs, earning his first playoff berth and 2017 series champ Martin Truex Jr. holding on to the 16th and final spot despite an early wreck that knocked him out of the Southern 500 when his playoff fate was very much in doubt.

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Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin each won three times this year.

Ty Gibbs, who turns 22 next month, won the Xfinity Series title in 2022 and now can add to JGR’s five Cup Series crowns.

“I’m very happy to be able to make it,” he said. “We’ll just see what we can do in 10 weeks.”

Penske enters with the past two reigning champions in Joey Logano in 2022 and Ryan Blaney last year. Austin Cindric won his way into the field in June at World Wide Technology Raceway outside of St. Louis.

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Blaney is ready to run it back, even though his Southern 500 was cut short when he was taken out early in the wreck with Truex, who took all the blame for the miscue.

Blaney recalled how his title bid got off to a slow start before those final six races when “just about everything went right.”

“You feel like, well, ‘We’ve done this before,’” Blaney said. “That experience, I think, is good for you, your guys, we’ve done this, what are the things that worked really well that we can apply, what are the things we have to be prepared for that can be different and what are things we did poorly that we” can improve this year.

The rest of the field includes 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who won the regular-season championship by a point over Larson; Brad Keselowski of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, who won the series title in 2012; and Daniel Suarez, who runs for Trackhouse Racing.

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Bring it on, says Briscoe, energized that he and Stewart-Haas have something to race for before the garage is shut for good. If he comes up short, Briscoe likely has more chances down the road since he’s headed to JGR next season to replace Truex, who is retiring after the playoffs.

“We just got to go” and compete, Briscoe said of this playoff run. “If we do what we did (at Darlington), we can beat anybody. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

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AP NASCAR: https://apnews.com/hub/nascar-racing


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Grant Fisher gets first Team USA Track & Field medal of Paris Olympics

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PARIS (Gray News) – American Grant Fisher won the bronze medal on Friday in the men’s 10,000-meter final at the Paris Olympics.

Fisher earned the first track & field medal for an American at the Olympics this year.

Fisher also became the first American to medal in the men’s 10,000 since 2012 with his time of 26:43.46.

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei took gold in the event and Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia took the silver in Friday’s event.

Friday’s field was said to be the fastest ever, with 15 of the 27 qualifiers having run faster than 27 minutes.

Copyright 2024 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.


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Track and field recap, Aug. 2: Sha’Carri dominates Olympic debut, Grant Fisher earns 10,000m bronze

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RESULTS

In the first medal event of the Paris Olympic track and field slate, Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda won gold with an Olympic record time of 26:43.14.

After taking silver in the Tokyo Olympic 10,000m, Cheptegei is now an Olympic gold medalist in his signature event, and he’s accomplished it in style. Cheptegei already held the world record in this event, which he set in 2020, and now he’s secured the Olympic record, too. The 27-year-old has become the most decorated Olympian in Uganda’s history with three medals — he also won 5000m gold in Tokyo. 

“I can’t describe the feeling,” Cheptegei said. “I’ve wanted this for a long time. When I took silver in Tokyo, I was disappointed. I wanted just to win the 10,000m. It was worth the wait.” 

Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi kicked hard in the final 20 meters to burst into silver medal position. After finishing fourth at the Tokyo Games, where he missed a medal by 2.28 seconds, Aregawi finally mounts an Olympic podium.

For American fans, the main draw in this race was 27-year-old Grant Fisher, who has earned his first Olympic medal with a 10,000m bronze. Fisher survived a mid-race stumble to earn the medal and become just the second American man in 58 years to reach the podium this event. Only Galen Rupp, who took silver in 2012, has done so since 1964.

“From the first lap, the crowd was screaming,” Fisher said. “I couldn’t hear anything the entire race.

The 10,000m doesn’t get a lot of love sometimes, but that crowd made it feel like we were the best show in town.

Fisher will also compete in the 5000m, which begins on Wednesday.

“As I’ve been in the game longer, I get a bit more validated that I belong in these positions,” Fisher added. “I was 100% focused on the race. When you know your preparation is good, all you’ve got to do is just execute it. There are so many things that go into today. Ultimately, this is the fun part.”

Fisher’s race was almost derailed in the final few laps when he stepped on the guardrail and nearly tumbled. Fisher lost some ground but promptly sped back up to wrangle his way back into medal contention.

“I just got bumped around a little bit and almost went down,” he said. “Thankfully, I didn’t fall, stayed up, just had to refocus.

“It was certainly a little rattling. I spent the whole race defending a position, and to just have it go like that, it doesn’t feel great. But what can you do? It’s a 10,000m, you can make a few mistakes and still recover.” 

Fellow Americans Nico Young and Woody Kincaid finished 12th and 16th, respectively.


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