COLLEGE PARK — Maryland football’s 29-13 setback to Iowa on Saturday was an exercise in polar opposites.

The Terps (4-7, 1-7 Big Ten) entered the game as one of the lowest ranked rushing offenses in the conference, while the Hawkeyes (7-4, 5-3) relied on their running backs more than any other team.

That dichotomy was certainly on display at SECU Stadium. With sophomore quarterback Jackson Stratton making his first start of the season, Iowa handed the ball off 58 times, gaining 268 yards and two touchdowns. Of Maryland’s 57 overall snaps, the offense rushed the ball 26 times for 98 yards and zero scores.

The Hawkeyes’ success on the ground contributed to them dominating the clock as they ran up a 37:41-22:19 advantage in time of possession. Terps coach Mike Locksley acknowledged the benefits Iowa accumulated from its rushing attack and clock management.

“It gives them confidence to sustain drives,” he said. “When you look at what they were able to do and get executed, when you’re dealing with a quarterback that’s not healthy, it’s what you would want to get accomplished, and we weren’t able to do it in the run game. To take a little pressure off of our quarterback, you need to be able to cover people up, and in the last few weeks, I saw us do that. Today, when you talk about the run game, it takes just one breakdown, and now it looks like it’s not working. We had a few of those one-man breakdowns that didn’t allow us to get into a rhythm on the offensive side to help our defense. That’s what we would have needed to do.”Here are three observations from Saturday’s loss.

You can’t question Billy Edwards Jr.’s toughness: The redshirt junior quarterback had one of his poorest outings of the season (5 of 8 passing for 26 yards and zero touchdowns) before getting knocked out of the game after a hard tackle in the third quarter. But he set the tone for his teammates.

Edwards injured the thumb on his right (throwing) hand a couple weeks ago, according to Locksley, and wore a glove to protect the thumb. The pain was enough to prevent him from throwing in practice until Thursday.

“We just kind of tried to rest the thumb to give him a chance,” Locksley said. “He gives us the best chance to win as our leader on the offensive side of the ball. But obviously [with] him not being able to go, we tried to add the run game element and tried to focus and force the run game like we did a week ago.”

Edwards’ determination did not go unnoticed by senior wide receiver Tai Felton.

“All week, he was fighting just to play in the game with the thumb,” said Felton, who caught six passes for 57 yards and two touchdowns. “His thumb’s been hurting all week. Like I tell you guys all the time, he comes in ready to work — hurt or not. He was still in the facility morning up to sun down all week. So he obviously was putting in the extra work with recovery and stuff like that, trying to get the thumb right. That guy’s a fighter. I appreciate him so much, and he does a lot for this program in his three or four years he’s been here.”

Redshirt sophomore MJ Morris replaced Edwards, went 12 of 23 for 103 yards, and mixed two touchdown passes with two interceptions. But barring further complications to the thumb or the physical shot he absorbed when his helmet collided with Iowa junior safety Xavier Nwankpa’s with 7:27 left in the third quarter, expect to see Edwards suit up for Saturday’s regular-season finale at No. 4 Penn State (10-1, 7-1).

The defense played admirably until the fourth quarter: Maryland’s 13-0 deficit at halftime could be viewed as a small victory for the defense.

In the first half, Iowa amassed 200 total yards, 139 rushing yards, and 15 first downs while controlling the clock for 22:52. But the offense was forced to settle for a field goal in the red zone and got two wind-aided field goals of 54 and 50 yards from junior kicker Drew Stevens.

And after Morris connected with Felton for a 12-yard touchdown with 11:05 left in regulation, the Terps trailed just 19-13 and were probably entertaining thoughts of a comeback similar to the one they accomplished in a 29-28 win against USC on Oct. 19.

But on the Hawkeye’ fourth snap of their next series, redshirt freshman running back Kamari Moulton took a handoff around the left end and raced 68 yards to the end zone to help the team reclaim a two-score advantage. That pretty much ended the notion of a Maryland rally.

“It was frustrating, but it was just one of those ‘Damn’ moments,” said senior outside linebacker Donnell Brown, who ranked second on the team with nine tackles, including one for loss. “We should’ve had him, but things happen. My thing is, they get a long run, cool, but now we’ve got to bounce back and keep bouncing, and I feel like we did.”

After Moulton’s score, Iowa’s defense intercepted Morris twice to essentially seal the outcome, and Locksley was left contemplating how inconsistently the Terps have played this fall.

“We’re within six, and that long run kind of took the wind out of our sails,” he said. “It goes back to complementary football on offense, defense and special teams.”

The final home game of the season was a rough ending for the seniors: Before the game, Maryland honored 22 seniors. That might have been the high point of the day for that group.

At least for the present time, the seniors will have to wear the ignominy of the team mired in a four-game losing streak and a stretch of six setbacks in the past seven contests. That’s bound to depress anyone.

“They are down, and it’s all I can do to not be like them because I know the work that they have put in,” Locksley said. “You look all across the country, and you see teams that are struggling like we’re struggling right now, and you see people quitting and not playing and opting out. I’m not saying that won’t happen, hasn’t happened, but I can just tell you that I don’t see that with this group. These guys are fighters. They embody that fighter’s spirit, and hopefully, that’s something that they’re taking from me because I’m even more motivated to figure this out for our fanbase, for our program.”

The seniors should be celebrated for their roles in helping the Terps finish above .500 in each of the previous three years and win three straight bowl games for the first time in school history. That group will be sorely needed if the team harbors any hope of upsetting the Nittany Lions and ending the season on a high note.

“We’ve had a good run here, and this gives us an opportunity to hit reset, and we want to do it pretty quickly,” Locksley said. “Next week is part of that reset. So we’ll finish it the right way. One of the pillars of our program is how we finish. We want to headbutt it, and we’ll go up to State College and headbutt the finish.”

Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@ baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.