In college football, things sometimes change in a hurry.
The Terrapins were down, 14-0, just past the midway mark of the first quarter. They cut into that lead as the quarter wound down, but the Terps didn't really start to pick things up until the second frame of 15 minutes.
The second quarter was a domination by Maryland that ended with the home team up by a 17-14 score. The Terps got a 41-yard field goal from Brad Craddock and a one-yard touchdown run by Wes Brown to get their total up from 7 to 17.
On defense, Andre Monroe terrorized Iowa's star left tackle, Brandon Scherff, for most of the first half. After Iowa scored twice on its first two possessions, the defense stopped the Hawkeyes on six straight series.
The Terps had a chance to add to their three-point margin in the final minute of the half, but a genuinely brutal series from an otherwise effective C.J. Brown ended any chance of that. After three straight questionable throws fell incomplete, a fourth was intercepted by cornerback Sean Draper at the Iowa 16-yard line.
Still, the Terps outgained Iowa, 246-170, over the entire half. In the second quarter, the margin was 123 to 53.
The Byrd Stadium crowd filled in nicely over the course of the half. This isn't a packed house, but it's not far from it.