Also not an expert, but I think it was Occam's Razor: ULL was simply too far north. The picture perfect placement of the coastal just couldn't fill the precip shield on the southwestern side. Just climo really. Western areas got great lift which sucked up a lot of what would've fallen in central MD. But these bands here are saving the day. One last thrust would get me over 7".
Would also love to see a storm loop though. Where can you access? I've seen blizzards on YouTube and this one was fairly sizable.