This is the Depth Dossier: the Maryland Terrapins, Week 7.

Maryland's bye week is starting with a staff change after a brutal collapse, falling 37 to 30 to Rutgers after leading by ten at halftime and then getting outscored 24 to nothing in the third quarter.

Let's start with the game itself. Maryland looked sharp for a half, scoring on three of its last four drives before the break to lead 23 to 13. Quarterback Malik Washington threw for 263 yards and two touchdowns, and he's now climbed into the program's top ten in career passing yards and touchdowns. But on the final play, his fourth-down shot to the end zone fell incomplete, and that pretty much summed up the day. Wide receiver Chris Durr Junior kept producing too, with 104 yards and a rushing touchdown on a reverse. There was even a blocked extra point that Maryland turned into a defensive two-point conversion, but none of it was enough to stop a second-half collapse that drops Maryland to 2 and 5 overall, and 0 and 4 in Big Ten play, heading into the bye.

So what actually happened in that third quarter? A lot of it comes down to the clock. Rutgers held the ball for 38 minutes in the second half to Maryland's 22, grinding out long scoring drives that kept Washington and the offense on the sideline. Maryland's offense had been efficient and explosive in the first half, but none of that matters when the other team simply won't give the ball back.

Special teams were a wash. That blocked extra point, scooped up and returned for a defensive two-point conversion by defensive back Jamare Glasker, should have been a game-swinging play. But a missed 34-yard field goal in the third quarter killed a Maryland drive right as Rutgers was building momentum, and the two plays canceled each other out.

The finish is what will linger here. Maryland played turnover-free offense for a second straight week, which is real progress on ball security, and still lost because of execution in the red zone. A drop in the flat and that near-miss fourth-down throw were the difference between overtime and a loss.

Now, no injuries came out of this game, but there's a bigger story that broke the next day. Head coach Michael Locksley fired defensive coordinator Ted Monachino on Sunday and promoted co-defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim to interim coordinator. That's the headline move of the week. It's not clear yet what changes schematically or personnel-wise under the new coordinator, but it reshapes how this defense is run for the rest of the season.

On the offensive side, Washington's workload keeps growing. He added 56 rushing yards to his 263 passing yards, and that climb into the career top ten in yards and touchdowns is a storyline worth tracking even while the wins aren't coming. Durr Junior remains the engine of the passing game and is now past 50 catches on the season. Running back and wide receiver DeJuan Williams had his best two-way game of the year, with 39 rushing yards and a touchdown catch, though that drop on the final drive is something he'll need to answer for. And tight end Damon Hall Junior scored his first career touchdown, building on the role he started carving out last week.

Maryland now heads into its bye, which gives Abdul-Rahim time to install whatever changes he wants before Big Ten play resumes. Worth watching: whether this coordinator change leads to any further staffing moves, and whether Maryland can fix that third-quarter offensive disappearing act before conference play picks back up.

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