For 53 minutes of Saturday’s Coastal Athletic Association game at Delaware, the University of Maine’s football team was going toe-to-toe with the undefeated Blue Hens, who are ascending from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision next season.
Delaware was holding a 23-21 lead, but a touchdown pass, an interception returned for a touchdown and a short TD run following another interception resulted in a final score of 44-21.
UMaine quarterback Carter Peevy had also been intercepted in the second quarter, and UMaine lost a fumble in the first half.
Peevy had been intercepted just once through the first five games.
UMaine head coach Jordan Stevens noted during Monday’s CAA coaches media zoom meeting that the turnovers were instrumental in their demise.
“That’s what stood out within the game. And it’s something we had done a really good job of [avoiding] all year. We were a little bit reckless with the ball. We forced some things when we didn’t need to. That took the wind out of our sails in the second half,” said Stevens.
“They’re a very good team. They’re at home. You can’t be turning the ball over like that,” Stevens added.
Delaware, which can’t compete in the FCS playoffs this season because it has already added scholarships above the 63 allowed in the conference, leads the FCS in turnover margin with a plus-12 thanks to the four turnovers on Saturday.
When you are a decided underdog, you have to play a near-perfect game to pull off the upset win.
Turnovers are self-inflicted errors. They are avoidable.
Delaware certainly had a decided edge in play as it outgained UMaine 458-229, but the four turnovers played into that.
The fact the Black Bears went into the final seven minutes of the game with a chance to knock off one of the best teams in the FCS on the road shows that progress is finally being made in Stevens’ third season.
UMaine has already won more games, three, than it did the previous two years when it went 2-9 each season.
The Black Bears will take a 3-3 record into its homecoming game against the FCS’ fifth-ranked team, 5-1 Villanova, at 1 p.m. Saturday 1 at Morse Field in Alfond Stadium.
Villanova is certainly not the ideal opponent for a homecoming game when you might prefer to play a lesser opponent in order to have a better chance of sending your fans home happy.
But Stevens knows that a victory over such a talented and experienced team would be a game-changer for his program.
The Delaware game kicked off a grueling four-game stretch.
After Villanova, UMaine will travel to take on 16th-ranked Rhode Island and then to face FBS power Oklahoma, which just dropped out of the AP top 25 this week.
Earlier this season, UMaine lost to current FCS No. 3 Montana State and beat Albany, a FCS semifinalist a year ago and ranked No. 21 at the time.
UMaine sacked Delaware quarterback Zack Marker three times, giving the Black Bears 13 on the season. That is just one fewer than all of last season.
Delaware had allowed just two sacks in its previous five games combined.
“That’s a combination of the [defensive backs and linebackers] working hard on the back end [to compliment the pass rush]. A couple times, we were able to force the quarterback to hold onto the ball and the rush got there,” said Stevens.
UMaine is averaging 2.17 sacks per game, which is tied for 38th among 123 FCS teams.
Junior defensive end Xavier Holmes had a game-high and career-high 13 tackles including a sack. He leads the team in tackles-for-loss with six and sacks with 3.5 and is second on the team in total tackles with 38.
“He has been outstanding all year and it goes back to last year,” said Stevens. “He plays extremely hard. You feel his passion on the field. I love the way he plays. The pressure he got and all of our guys got [on the quarterback] was just from relentless effort and not giving up on the play. Continuing to work together to cage the quarterback, which is another point of emphasis for us.”
Stevens said they have done a better job pressuring the quarterback than they did earlier this season.
He felt his team played hard from start to finish and Delaware coach Ryan Carty agreed.
“They’re a very good football team. They’re sound, tough and physical and they had a great game plan. They used their bye week well,” said Carty, a former UNH assistant. “You could see how their confidence has changed [after two straight wins]. It isn’t easy on coach Stevens to build the program back up after coming off two down years.
“They felt they were good enough to come down here and give us a helluva fight and win and they proved they could,” said Carty.
Stevens feels his players are playing with more conviction this year and credited co-captains Cooper Heisey and John Costanza, for their leadership.
“I commend our players for their fight throughout the game. But we have to honor the work and preparation that we do by going out and executing and performing. Each week, we have to continually increase that. We can’t take steps back,” said Stevens.
