COLLEGE PARK — Week 2 of the college football season wasn’t nearly as easy for Maryland.

After enjoying a 43-point demolition of UConn a week ago, the Terps failed to protect a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter and watched helplessly as graduate student kicker Jonathan Kim’s 37-yard field goal with one second left cemented a 27-24 win for Michigan State on Saturday evening before an announced 34,819 at SECU Stadium.

Maryland missed out on an opportunity to win its first two games for the ninth time in the past 10 years and its third consecutive Big Ten home opener. The program lost for only the second time in 15 games in September over the past four seasons.

“We had one taken,” coach Mike Locksley said. “You’ve got to give Michigan State credit. They took the game. They drove it down, and they kicked the winning field goal. They did what we didn’t do, and that to me, that’s the part — as a player-led team and me as the head coach — we’ve got to get fixed.”

As disappointed as he was, senior safety Dante Trader Jr. chose to cling to a silver lining.

“It’s kind of good that it happened early,” said the McDonogh graduate, who had three tackles. “We didn’t want it to happen at all, but it’s life. It’s the game of football. It’s always taking something away. It’s not a game that always gives. But we’ll figure it out.”

After a slow start, redshirt junior quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. found his rhythm in the second half and finished 26-for-34 with 253 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed six times for 13 yards and one score.

For the second consecutive game, Edwards’ favorite target was Tai Felton, who caught 11 passes for 154 yards and one touchdown. The senior wide receiver became the first Terps receiver to reach 100 yards in each of his first two games since Dontay Demus Jr. in 2021 and the first player to compile 150 yards in back-to-back games since Jermaine Lewis in 1995.

But that duo was outplayed by the Spartans’ pair of Aidan Chiles and Nick Marsh. Chiles, a sophomore transfer from Oregon State, connected on 24 of 39 throws for 363 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. Marsh, a freshman, amassed 194 yards and one touchdown on eight receptions.

Michigan State (2-0, 1-0 Big Ten) exposed a Maryland defense that returned seven starters and appeared to be the team’s strength after limiting the Huskies to 88 rushing yards and forcing either a punt or turnover on 11 of 15 offensive possessions. The Spartans rolled to 493 yards, including 363 through the air, averaged 7.1 yards per play and converted 8 of 14 third-down chances.

“The game plan was to make them beat us throwing the ball, and Aidan Chiles and those receivers did a good job of winning,” Locksley said. “We had our chances. We just didn’t take advantage of them, and to me, we’ve got to get that part fixed.”

If there was a bright spot for the Terps, they came away with three interceptions, including two by redshirt senior safety Glendon Miller. With at least one interception in four straight games, Miller just needs an interception at Virginia on Saturday night to tie the school record of five straight games with an interception set by Lewis Sanders in 1999.

Trailing 17-14 at halftime, Maryland tied the score thanks to a 45-yard field goal by redshirt junior kicker Jack Howes midway through the third quarter. The Terps regained the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter when Edwards found sophomore tight end Dylan Wade along the left sideline for a 28-yard touchdown.

But one play after Howes pushed a 41-yard field goal attempt wide right, Michigan State knotted the score at 24 when Chiles launched a deep pass to Marsh to complete a 77-yard touchdown with 4:11 remaining.

While acknowledging that freshman cornerback Kevyn Humes, a Baltimore native and St. Frances graduate, slipped in the defensive backfield, Trader said he and Miller have to provide better support.

“We were in a certain coverage where it was really one-on-one,” Trader said. “It’s kind of hard, but we knew they were going to give us the race route. That quarterback did a good job of finding his playmakers to make explosive plays. So we’ve got to go back to the drawing board because we will get that upcoming since we showed we couldn’t cover that today.”

The Spartans defense forced the Terps to punt. Michigan State took advantage of a pass interference penalty on junior cornerback Jalen Huskey to extend its final series and end the game courtesy of Kim’s 37-yard field goal.

The Terps opened the game as if they were still living off the high of last Saturday’s 50-7 rout of UConn. They marched 75 yards in 14 plays, and although Edwards missed senior wide receivers Kaden Prather and Felton three times for potential touchdowns, the quarterback connected with Felton on a 15-yard corner route to the back left corner of the end zone for the early 7-0 lead nearly halfway through the first quarter.

Michigan State replied on its first possession. Aided by an unnecessary roughness call by redshirt sophomore cornerback Perry Fisher and a 30-yard run by junior running back Nathan Carter, Chiles found senior wide receiver Montorie Foster Jr. for a 9-yard score with less than six minutes remaining.

On the Spartans’ next offensive series, Chiles wildly overthrew Marsh, and the ball landed in Miller’s waiting arms. He returned the ball 28 yards to Michigan State’s 17-yard line, and two plays later, Edwards carried the ball seven yards off left tackle for a touchdown that gave Maryland a 14-7 lead with 47 seconds left in the frame.

Again, the Spartans had a response. They drove to the Terps’ 21 before junior right guard Gavin Broscious was flagged for an illegal blindside block. But on second down-and-23, junior wide receiver Jaron Glover faked outside and sprinted inside past Huskey to catch a 34-yard touchdown that tied the score at 14 with less than 11 minutes left in the second quarter.

Michigan State pounced on another Maryland error to end the first half. Kim’s 55-yard field-goal attempt sailed wide left as time expired, but Huskey had jumped offsides. Kim made his second chance count with a 50-yarder on an untimed play to give the Spartans the 17-14 lead at intermission.

Locksley’s message to the players in the locker room was that there are 10 more games on the schedule — beginning with Saturday night’s road game against Virginia — and Edwards echoed that sentiment.

“Like Coach Locks said in the locker room, the season is not a loss, it’s not a wipeout,” he said. “We’ve got to correct the things we’ve got to correct. We’ve got a really tough game coming on the road down to Charlottesville next week against UVA, and we’ve got to get this stuff correct and be ready for the rest of the season and so on. It’ll be tough, but we’ve got the right group of guys in the locker room. I think we’re all ready to get back in here tomorrow and Monday and watch the tape and most importantly learn from it and rally the guys and move on.”