Virginia Tech Hokies 35, Maryland Terrapins 26 | Maryland Terrapins Recap

Two failed two-point conversions in the fourth quarter. That's the game right there.

Maryland quarterback Malik Washington threw for 359 yards and three touchdowns Saturday night at SECU Stadium, but a pair of missed two-point conversions in the fourth quarter kept the Terps from ever pulling within one score — and Virginia Tech walked out of College Park with a 35-26 win that stung far beyond the margin.

Maryland's nonconference winning streak was the longest in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Was. Virginia Tech ended it at 20 games Saturday night. Twenty. Gone.

The Terps didn't lose this because Washington played poorly. He didn't. Penn State transfer Ethan Grunkemeyer picked apart Maryland's defense with precision, completing 31 of 39 passes for 314 yards, and that's the part College Park needs to sit with. Maryland's defense couldn't slow him down when it mattered most.

Grunkemeyer opened the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Luke Reynolds on the game's first possession, then escaped the pocket on third-and-goal from the 18 and ran for another score. Just like that, Virginia Tech had a 13-0 lead and the crowd at SECU was already uneasy. Iverson Howard scored on a 2-yard run for Maryland, but a 49-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Jeffrey Overton Jr. made it 20-7 with 9:14 left in the half.

The Terps kept clawing. Washington found Chris Durr Jr. twice in the red zone, and the offense moved the ball. But Virginia Tech went 8 of 9 on third down and gained 302 total yards in the first half alone. Maryland's defense simply had no answer for that conversion rate. Grunkemeyer's 2-yard pass to Ja'Ricous Hairston made it 27-14 at the break.

Tech controlled the time of possession 36:38 to 23:22, and though it only scored once in the second half, it built enough of a halftime lead — 13 points — that it didn't have to sweat too much in the waning moments. That's a team that knew it had won the game before the third quarter kicked off.

It was the first test against a Power Four opponent for the Hokies under new coach James Franklin, and they led from the start. "We're fortunate to get out of here with a win," Franklin said. "I thought we played really good complementary football."

The Terps fall to 2-1, and the Big Ten schedule begins next Saturday at home against UCLA — and Maryland has lost its last eight conference games. Saturday night was supposed to be a confidence-builder before that gauntlet. Instead it's a reckoning.

That 20-game nonconference winning streak now belongs to BYU at 16 games. Maryland had owned that record. Now it's somebody else's.