Postgame Press Conference: Maine 21, UMass 20

Nov. 8, 2008

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Head Coach Don Brown's general comments

We dug ourselves a huge hole in the first half. We could not get into any rhythm, offensively, defensively. We survived a bad snap on a punt. Brett Arnold did a great job of ad-libbing and it ended up being a positive. When you dig yourself a 14-point hole, you have problems. Obviously, we came right out and competed hard to bring ourselves to even Steven. I was disappointed in their last drive. It was the only drive in the second half that ended in points. He made a couple big pass plays. We have to give credit to Michael Brusko. I still don't think he got in on the fourth down play. I can't wait to see it on tape, at the end, but the bottom line is that we gave ourselves a chance. We hit the lazor screen for a touchdown. Why did the kick fail? I'm not totally positive, it hit the upright. We don't know if he just missed it or not, but obviously, there was some question whether or not he was ready for it. Bottow line is, we still had two additional chances and we were't able to capitalize. That's the way it goes sometimes. I thought we did nothing in the first 30 minutes. We were very unsettled and didn't play well. I thought we showed our true colors in the second half. We outscored them 20-7 in the second half. It is a very disappointing lose. I give credit to Maine. I thought they played hard all day long but I felt we played harder in the second half.

Coach Brown on what went wrong

We were unsettled on defense with a couple of the formations that we had to get accustomed to. We had practiced them during the course of the week and hadn't had any problems, but I think we short circuited a hair. We really adjusted nicely in the second half. Obviously, closed the gap in turns of number of plays. They had 70 plays, we had 55 plays, including some kneel downs for them. I thought we did a good job of closing the gap. It got to the one point thing. I know they've been down here a couple of times and been snake-bitten by the extra point scenario. Bottom line is we did not get it done. We got banged up today. We have to reevaluate and see where we are at. We lost some of our packages, and had to scramble. Shane Viveriros had to become a full time player and did a nice job. He stepped it up physically. Reshaude Goodwin played a lot of minutes. We played several defensive linemen that usually don't play. We lost Ben Coblyn for a good amount of time today. Josh Samuda went down as well. Those are the flows of games in November that you have to get over and get through.

Jeromy Miles on defensive showing

When they had the ball for that long, that hurt us in the long run and killed the game too. We only had the ball and it was a couple of three-and-outs early in the game. So it felt like they had the ball the whole first half and we didn't really give our offense that much of a chance. When we don't give them a chance, there isn't much they can do about it. Obviously, that was their game plan, holding the ball and running the ball, similar to Richmond. It was successful, especially in the first half. Sometimes it just doesn't happen. We played much better in the second half. We made adjustments and shifts in the line and recognizing formations. We came out with more emotion in the second half and we knew this was pretty much a playoff game. We tried to take the game in our hands. We did a pretty good job, but we came up short.

Miles on watching scores of other games

I feel like we didn't handle this game today. We have to handle our business before we can worry about what happens with everyone else. Even if the odds end in our favor, we still have to go out next week and beat New Hampshire and after that, Hofstra. Neither of them are going to be push overs. I feel like we get too involved in worrying about things ahead of us and not worrying about the task in front of us. We want to win two more football games. It is definitely a pride thing too. No one wants to let the season go and not fight for it. We want to fight for every inch that we get. The next two games are a much win. Our pride is on the line.

Liam Coen on touchdown pass

It was the same play we kept hitting them on. A little skinny and an elongated slant. We were expecting two deep, so I wasn't going to throw there. We were going to come to the other side, and they rolled the coverage. That opens up that pattern, but they did a very good job of expecting that. I did a very poor job of not recognizing that and maybe signaling to Jeremy to run a different route. We have one where we put him one-on-one, but its squeezing it a little too much.

Coen on hail mary

I saw a lot of red jerseys. A lot of teams have won like that. You have to hope, but we shouldn't have been in that situation. Like Coach said, we wasted the first half. Absolutely wasted it. I thought we played tough in ths second, but individually it has been very frustrating when you don't play as well as you wanted to. You hurt them more than you help them.

Maine Head Coach Jack Cosgrove's general comments

We're just very, very pleased to get a win at UMass; this means an incredible amount to our program. I t has been challenge after challenge his year with this football team in terms of responding to its growth, and obviously playing a team of UMass' caliber and ability, a championship program, what we strive to be, to get a win on their field in a very critical game is very richly rewarding for all of us. To me it never mattered how we got, just that we got it.

Head Coach Jack Cosgrove on the Black Bear's recent play

This 2008 version is trying not to go backwards for the Maine Black Bears. It goes back to five weeks ago at Delaware, we lost two heartbreaking games to Delaware he last two times we were down there and we put an end to the Delaware situation, that win started us on our winning streak. The fact that it ended up being decided by an extra point that was missed in their part, which seems to be the theme lately.

Maine head coach on the missed extra point

I didn't think that that was going to be the deciding factor; I thought we would have to go score. Liam Coen presents a tremendous challenge to anybody's defense. I felt like we had to get down the field and score. We were eating up the clock but we didn't get a chance to finish that drive. It was surprising to me that it ended up being the deciding point. They were basically unstoppable in the second half, they had two touchdown drive and one-play drive so we had not done a lot to stop them from putting points up on the board until the fourth quarter when we had the big plays from Downey.

Maine head coach on competing against UMass

I told the guys at halftime, we had a great first half but we are playing a great team, a championship team and we have to play greater. You saw how UMass responded, they came out and took the opening drive of the second half and then they got a turnover and another score. Something we worked so hard for got taken away from us like that, but that's a tribute to who they are and they're used to winning. They've gone 29-8 over the last couple years, that's a lot of wins, and we're working to get to that kind of consistency in our program.

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics

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