Football passed over against Hurricanes

With six seconds remaining, Terrapin football quarterback Danny O'Brien launched one last ball to the left side of the end zone at Sun Life Stadium, and, for a second, wide receiver Adrian Cannon seemed to have a grip on the ball.

Even after allowing Miami to take the lead in the final minute of Saturday's game in Miami Gardens, Fla., after an 82-yard touchdown drive, the Terps still had given themselves one last shot at victory. After taking possession with 37 seconds left and one timeout remaining, O'Brien drove the Terps in four plays to the Hurricanes' 30-yard line to set up a touchdown try.

But as time expired, Cannon's left foot came down out of bounds as Miami safety Vaughn Telemaque slammed into him and sent the ball tumbling to the ground. During a season characterized by advantageous play and consistent care for the ball, the final mishandled opportunity by the Terps seemed appropriate enough in their 26-20 loss to the Hurricanes.

"We thought with 100 percent confidence we were going to score and win," O'Brien said. "We had a shot, and that's all you can ask for on the last drive."

Although the Hurricanes nearly doubled the Terps in offensive yardage, gaining 504 to their visitors' 254, the Terps played even with their ACC foes through much of the game. And even before the final play, the team squandered opportunities that could have altered the outcome in a back-and-forth affair that saw the lead change hands five times.

Most prominent among them was the Terps' (6-3, 3-2 ACC) failure to do anything on their penultimate possession. After halting a Miami drive, the Terps regained possession with five and a half minutes left in the game and a 20-18 lead. Despite holding the slim advantage and the ball deep in his team's own territory, coach Ralph Friedgen opted to try to kill the clock — an option only available because of Miami's wasteful timeout use that left them with none entering the fourth quarter.

But running back Davin Meggett picked up just eight yards on three rushes, failing to move the chains. Instead of grinding their way to two first downs that could have assured a win, the Terps went three-and-out.

"They were out of timeouts, and I felt like if I could get it under three minutes, we'd probably win the football game," Friedgen said. "The other thing I didn't want to do is turn it over down there and, with them having no timeouts, if we throw an incompletion, I'm helping them. In a perfect world, I would have loved two first downs, took a knee and went home."

That failed drive set the stage for Miami's game-winning touchdown.

After a booming 62-yard punt from Travis Baltz, the Hurricanes (6-3, 4-2) faced a long field when they took over on their own 18-yard line with 3:06 on the clock.

The Terp defense twice forced Miami into third-down situations but twice gave up big plays that continued the Hurricanes' drive. Facing a third-and-2 from his own 26, true freshman quarterback Stephen Morris, playing for injured starter Jacory Harris, managed to get rid of the ball for a 9-yard completion, and a penalty on defensive tackle Joe Vellano moved them up 15 additional yards.

Three plays later, facing a third-and-11, Morris couldn't find an open receiver, so he instead dashed 16 yards up the right side to keep the Hurricanes' hopes alive.

On the next play, Morris found wide receiver Leonard Hankerson for a 35-yard touchdown pass, and Miami added a two-point conversion to take a 26-20 lead.

"We had good coverage on it," linebacker Alex Wujciak said. "He just made a hell of a throw."

Wujciak made his contribution to the Terps with a pair of interceptions. He returned one 60 yards for a touchdown and a 14-6 lead. Later in the game, he grabbed another to give the Terps the ball in the red zone, but O'Brien threw an interception in the end zone.

Another red-zone scoring opportunity ended in disappointment in the second quarter. With the ball on the 2-yard line, the Terps inserted quarterback Jamarr Robinson for a goal-line play. But Robinson botched the snap and dropped back eight yards, forcing the Terps to settle for a 27-yard field goal.

For the Terps, the miscues and missed chances proved most painful because of just how close they came to winning. Facing imposing matchups against an athletically superior opponent, the Terps found ways to come yards within victory before eventually ceding it to the Hurricanes.

"We didn't feel outmatched at all," O'Brien said. "We competed for four quarters, which is all you can ask for, and gave ourselves a chance to win."

Said Friedgen: "For our players, it was bad for them because they played their hearts out. They gave it everything they had. We made some mistakes, but that was a pretty talented team we were playing, and I thought we fought them tooth and nail. I really felt we deserved to win, just disappointed that we couldn't get it."

kyanchulis@umdbk.com