Complete collapse

It would be difficult to sum up the Terrapins football team's abysmal first season under coach Randy Edsall any better than its second-half performance did Saturday in Raleigh, N.C.

After building a 27-point lead over N.C. State early in the third quarter, the Terps appeared well on their way to their first win in nearly two months.

But with three second-half turnovers and a sudden inability to stop the Wolfpack's offensive attack, the Terps fell apart.

N.C. State rattled off 42 points over the game's final 21:57 to finish their regular season with a 56-41 victory — the second-largest comeback ever in ACC history — that will likely go down as the Terps' worst loss in a season riddled with unsightly performances. The defeat marked the team's seventh straight by a double-digit margin.

"All of the sudden, we could not make a play," Edsall said after the game.

A positive result at Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday would have done little to lessen the sting of the Terps' disappointing season.

It would have, however, at least given them something to build off entering the offseason.

Entering halftime Saturday, it seemed the Terps had finally put it all together.

Paced by three touchdowns from quarterback C.J. Brown and defensive scores from defensive backs Dexter McDougle and A.J. Hendy, the Terps (2-10, 1-7 ACC) cruised into the locker room at halftime with a lead for the first time since Oct. 15.

But as they did that night against Clemson, the Terps lost their way in the second half.

After running back Davin Meggett rumbled for a 46-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter, the Terps' remaining offensive drives ended in three punts, two interceptions and a fumble.

And for every offensive misstep, N.C. State had an answer. Led by quarterback Mike Glennon (306 passing yards and six total touchdowns), the Wolfpack (7-5, 4-4) reeled off five unanswered touchdowns to erase the Terps' lead late in the fourth quarter and take an eight-point lead of their own.

As a fitting end to the game, the Terps' final drive ended with an interception by Wolfpack cornerback C.J. Wilson, who went 59 yards down the sideline for a touchdown to cap off an extraordinary N.C. State comeback and nightmarish Terps season.

"Definitely probably one of the worst feelings I have ever had as an athlete," linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield (18 tackles) told reporters after the game. "Definitely one of the worst."

Only making matters worse for what has become a weary program and athletics department, the Wolfpack presented longtime Terps Athletic Director Debbie Yow, who now holds the same position at N.C. State, with the game ball.

It was the Wolfpack's first win over the Terps in either football or men's basketball since Yow's departure in 2010.

And as Yow and N.C. State celebrated the win and looked ahead to their bowl game assignment, the Terps slunk off the field for the last time this season to ponder the changes that must be made this offseason.

"It was really tough," Edsall said of the game. "We needed to make the plays that we didn't make."

cwalsh@umdbk.com