Taulia Tagovailoa fueled the quick-strike offense of Maryland, throwing a career-high five touchdown passes as the Terps rolled to a 44-17 Big Ten win over visiting Indiana on Saturday in College Park, Md.
Tagovailoa completed 24 of 34 passes for 352 yards without an interception. He also ran for a score and facilitated a career performance from Tai Felton, a junior who made his first three touchdown catches this season.
The defense of Maryland (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) also excelled, helping the Terps to their quickest start since 2001. It also is their first 2-0 start in the Big Ten since joining the league in 2014.
Indiana (2-3, 0-2) dominated time of possession, 38:04 to 21:56, but didn’t get into the end zone until the fourth quarter.
The Terps scored on three of their first four possessions and needed just six plays to do it.
Their first touchdown came 25 seconds into the game when Felton caught a 13-yard touchdown pass, two plays after Tagovailoa and Jones hooked up for 62 yards on the game’s first snap.
After a short punt and a penalty on the Hoosiers, it took Tagovailoa and Felton just one play to connect for a 29-yard touchdown and a 14-3 lead.
A 23-yard punt return by Jones put Maryland back in scoring position and two plays later, Tagovailoa sprinted 19 yards on a read-option touchdown run and a 21-3 lead.
In the final minute of the first half, Tagovailoa threw a 9-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Felton for a 27-3 lead.
Felton nearly had a fourth touchdown grab but his 46-yard reception of an underthrown Tagovailoa pass set up a 3-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Wade for a 37-3 lead.
Felton finished with 134 yards on seven receptions, both career highs. Jones caught six for 121 yards.
Indiana’s Tayven Jackson finished with 17 completions in 29 attempts for 113 yards and one interception.
Brendan Sorsby came off the bench in the fourth quarter for the Hoosiers and threw the first two touchdown passes of his college career. He completed 7 of 11 passes for 84 yards.
Now comes the hard part for Maryland as three of its next six games come against Big Ten teams who entered Saturday ranked in the top six.
— Field Level Media
