Well, UMass' 2008 quest for the playoffs ended in the rain at McGuirk. Hopefully, we will play with pride in the last two game and send the seniors out winners.
This game went bad right at the start. You would think that Maine's All-American DE Jovan Belcher would be the one player UMass would be pointing to on every play. He went flying in untouched on the first play and hit Coen. The hit seemed to hurt Liam, who has been playing with what has been described as a shoulder or elbow injury. Or maybe it's both. He was inaccurate for the rest of the game. There were four interceptions, but there could have been six. One of whom was a sure six points.
Then on the next play, Ben Coblyn got hurt and was on the field for a long time. Those first two plays took all the air out of the offense in the first half. For some reason, when Maine plays a slow-down offense and we do the same. We were slow in the huddle and slow getting plays in. In the second half, we picked up the tempo and moved the ball.
The defense played well enought to win. We had a couple of stops late in the game. The Black Bears ran the ball, but that's what they do.
Let's get after UNH next week. As I have said before, win or lose, Go UMass!
UMass write-up here .
Black Bear's write-up here .
Jeff Thomas has an article on the loss here .
I'll be back tomorrow with more stories and a web album.