STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Jack Cosgrove couldn’t have sounded more disgusted after witnessing another second-half no-show from his offense Saturday.
Maine couldn’t protect its quarterbacks, barely even tried to run the football and was overwhelmed by a relentless Stony Brook defense in a 19-7 loss before an announced crowd of 5,842 at LaValle Stadium.
The Black Bears (2-4, 1-2 Colonial Athletic Association) connected on a 73-yard scoring pass on the second play of the game. They managed only 59 yards the rest of the way, being shut out in the second half for the third time this season. Overall, they have been outscored 78-17 after intermission.
“We just couldn’t block,” Cosgrove said. “That was as bad a performance in the second half as I think I’ve ever seen.”
Maine led 7-3 at halftime as its defense held up despite being on the field for more than 22 minutes.
Stony Brook (3-4, 2-1) did something on the first possession of the second half that it hadn’t done all year – score a third-quarter touchdown. Stacey Bedell broke through the tiring Black Bear defense for a 24-yard run. The Seawolves got another third-quarter touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Conor Bednarski to Will Tye. That was more than enough for a defense that was tops in the Football Championship Subdivision, coming in by allowing only 229.8 yards per game. Maine mustered a mere 135.
“We dominated the first half. We were in the game, absolutely,” said middle linebacker Christophe Mulumba Tshimanga, who led Maine with 12 tackles. “I just felt we let down a little bit in the third quarter, which didn’t help us. Offensively and defensively, we didn’t play together.”
It may have gotten worse for the Black Bears, who have almost no chance of repeating as CAA champion. Quarterback Dan Collins left the game after being dragged down hard on a fourth-quarter pass attempt. Stony Brook was called for a facemask penalty, giving Maine one of its six first downs. But Collins went to the locker room and didn’t return. He was in visible pain and wearing a sling on his shoulder after the game.
Collins’ replacement, freshman Drew Belcher, had the Black Bears’ only third-down conversion in 12 attempts on a 6-yard run. But Maine quickly turned the ball over on downs when it couldn’t gain a yard on two chances.
Collins finished 12 of 25 for 117 yards, with one long touchdown to wide-open tight end Jeremy Salmon, and one interception. Belcher didn’t complete any of his five passes. Neither quarterback had time to search for open receivers.
“We knew they had a really good defense. We’ve got to do some better things in terms of calling the right protections,” said Belcher, who will make his first start next Saturday against Albany if Collins can’t go.
“We didn’t move the ball enough. We really just had one big play. We didn’t do enough to help our defense. Teams are going to score if they get the ball that much in the game. We’ve got to do a better job as an offense.”
The Seawolves gained 366 yards and had the ball for 40:59.
Maine, knowing it would have trouble running the ball, attempted just one run in the first half, a 1-yard gain by Isaiah Jones. Cosgrove said the halftime adjustment was to try to achieve more balance, and Jones did gain 15 yards on the first play of the second half. But there were too many negative plays to generate any momentum. Maine finished with 18 yards on 14 carries. It didn’t help that starting right guard Daniel Carriker was injured last week in practice and replaced by Benedict Wezel.
“We felt like we needed to take advantage of some throws and catches and we didn’t protect well enough for that to happen,” Cosgrove said.
“We had some open screens we didn’t connect on. We just didn’t execute at all.”
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