At first, Maryland appeared as if they were going to run away with this one early. The Terrapins only needed 8 plays to march 80 yards on their opening drive and scored after Scott McBrien lofted a screen pass to tailback Chris Downs, who raced to pay dirt 11 yards later. It wasn’t even five minutes into the contest and the heavily favored Terrapins had already scored. The ‘Hoos would eventually answer at the start of the 2nd quarter after Conner Hughes boomed a 47-yarder through the uprights to make the score 7-3 with 14:56 remaining in the first half.

What happened on Maryland’s next drive played a colossal role in determining the outcome of the game. On the first play of the drive McBrien launched a deep pass down the right sideline to a wide open Scooter Monroe. The ball was placed right on target by McBrien, but Monroe let a likely touchdown and Maryland’s BCS hopes, slip right through his hands and fall to the turf. “I thought it was thrown further,” Monroe said. “I got it in on my wrists. I didn’t take my eye off it. I saw it the whole way.” Whatever it was that forced Monroe to drop that football, you could just immediately feel the momentum shift to the Cavaliers in Scott Stadium. Two plays later a leaping Jermaine Hardy plucked a Scott McBrien pass out of the air and dashed all the way to the Terrapin 27 yard line. On the next play, Virginia signal-caller Matt Schaub flung a pass out into the flat to fullback Jason Snelling, who broke a tackle and then bulldozed his way through another Maryland defender as he dove into the end zone for the score. The shift in momentum couldn’t have been overstated in this situation, as the Cavaliers had just went from potentially trailing 14-3, to leading 10-7 with 13:43 left in the first half. It was a two touchdown swing in momentum that the Terrapins wouldn’t recover from for the rest of the contest. After Conner Hughes booted a 27-yard field goal later in the 2nd quarter to put Virginia up 13-7, things would continue to swing in the ‘Hoos favor for much of the contest. A few plays later, McBrien zipped a pass into the flat to Chris Downs, who coughed up the football after Virginia’s Angelo Crowell stripped it free. Defensive end Chris Canty recovered the football for the Cavaliers at the Maryland 22. A few plays later, quarterback Matt Schaub swung a screen pass into the flat to tailback Wali Lundy, who then dodged a few Maryland defenders and dove his way into the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown catch. The score was now 20-7 with 2:03 remaining in the first half and many were probably beginning to wonder why the 18th ranked Terrapins were ever favored in the contest. In one quarter, the Terrapins had gone from looking like they were going to dominate the game to being on the other end of an absolute throttling at the hands of the Cavaliers.

On the Cavaliers’ opening possession of the third quarter, quarterback Matt Schaub continued his near-flawless performance in ripping apart the Terrapin secondary after he completed a 21-yard screen pass to Wali Lundy to push the Cavaliers to near midfield. One pass interference penalty and Lundy run later, Virginia was looking to put the game away for good. They had the ball, 2nd and 7 from the Terrapins’ 37 yard line and they decided to delve into their bag of trickery. The ‘Hoos ran a double reverse in which the ball finally ended up in receiver Billy McMullen’s hands. McMullen then raced across the field where he was met head on by Terps lineman Durrand Roundtree, but somehow managed to duck the tackle, leaving Roundtree on the turf. McMullen then took two steps forward, leaped into the air, and zinged a low flying ball down the field to a wide open Michael McGrew who caught the under thrown pass and ran it in for the score from 10 yards out. “I looked like Randall Cunningham out there,” McMullen said jokingly. The rout was officially on as the Cavs had rattled off 27 unanswered points since the Terps scored a touchdown in the first quarter. There may have been 12:59 left in the 3rd quarter, but this one was already in the books. It was no longer a question of if the Cavaliers would win, but by how many?