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Injuries, inexperience and mistakes: When you have those three things against you, there are bound to be struggles. Especially among the Colonial Athletic Association which, for the fourth straight week, has six teams ranked in the national polls. The University of Maine Black Bear football team has experienced all these problems this season and has not won since their season opener.
The Black Bears look to snap a six-game losing streak and try to salvage the rest of the season Saturday afternoon as they take on the Northeastern Huskies at Parsons Field in Boston.
UMaine (1-6, 0-4 CAA) is coming off a 30-23 double-overtime loss at Stony Brook this past weekend where they held a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. It marks the second straight week holding a lead in the second half of a game and still losing.
“It was a very, very difficult loss for us with a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter,” said head coach Jack Cosgrove during Monday’s CAA teleconference. “We [just] let it get away.”
While UMaine has seen its share of struggles, the same can be said of Northeastern, which comes into the game with an identical overall and conference record, tying them for last place with UMaine and Rhode Island in the North Division. The Huskies are coming off a 24-7 defeat on the road at the hands of division leader UMass.
Both UMaine and Northeastern rank near the bottom in the league in the major statistical categories, averaging 14.4 and 15.3 points per game respectively. They have the two worst scoring offenses in the league and defenses giving up just under 30 points per game.
Even though this season has been a disappointment, the Black Bears are just a few plays from having a winning record. Losing three games this season despite fourth-quarter leads – two of them ending in overtime losses – the ability to finish games has been a major problem. It is something that comes as the squad gets more experience.
“Our guys competed hard and we went the distance,” said Cosgrove of last weekend’s loss at Stony Brook, “but we just didn’t get it done at the end of the game.”
In spite of six straight losses and a winless conference record, UMaine has not given up on the season. During the first few weeks they had virtually no passing game, but recently redshirt first-year quarterback Adam Farkes, who will be playing in his hometown of Boston for the first time, has emerged as a more reliable signal caller.
“The thing I hope will result from [the Stony Brook game] is that we get a young, inexperience quarterback who will never make the mistakes he did at the end of the game,” said Cosgrove of Farkes’ two late interceptions that overshadowed his two touchdown performance. “He is going to be an outstanding player in this league, but the process is putting a little bit of a bite into him right now.”
If Farkes can continue to improve, as he will look to throw for multiple touchdowns for the third-straight game, the UMaine offense could begin rolling once again.
Sophomore wide receiver Landis Williams has emerged as Farkes’ favorite target and junior tailback Jhamal Fluellen has blossomed into one of the conference’s top offensive players.
“He has provided us with a ton of offensive productivity,” said Cosgrove of Fluellen who is coming off his second straight 100-yard rushing game and fourth of the season.
“He’s really been the sparkplug [and] the real focal point of our offense,” said Cosgrove.
With an improving offense, the defense, which has always been the foundation of UMaine football, got a spark last week with the return of junior linebacker Andrew Downey from injury.
“[Downey] is really an outstanding football player,” said Cosgrove of his third-team all-conference linebacker. “He adds to the personality of our defense and it is good to have him back. We’re [also] hoping to get a couple more guys back this week.”
Bangor Daily News