It was back to work on Monday morning for the University of Maine football team after its 41-24 loss to No. 3- ranked Montana State on Saturday night in Bozeman, Montana.
The one-sided loss showed the Black Bears where they need to improve. The defense gave up nine plays of 20 or more yards, and six of them were runs including touchdown runs of 79 and 40 yards as Montana State built a 35-0 lead.
Now the Black Bears shift their focus to their Coastal Athletic Association opener against former UMaine quarterback Derek Robertson and his Monmouth University teammates on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on Morse Field in Alfond Stadium in Orono.
The good news for the Black Bears is the Hawks have only rushed for 123 yards on 42 carries, an average of 2.8 yards per carry. That stands in contrast to Montana State, which leads the Football Championship Subdivision in rushing, averaging 348.3 rushing yards per game and 7.36 yards per carry.
And the Black Bears will be facing an 0-2 Hawks team that will be reeling from a 40-35 loss to a No. 19 Lafayette team that recovered an onside kick while trailing 35-34 with less than a minute to go and then threw a game-winning touchdown pass with 36 seconds remaining.
The bad news is that Robertson, who transferred to Monmouth after last season, is currently third in the FCS with 745 passing yards and he has a 65.4 percent completion rate. He has thrown seven touchdown passes and been intercepted three times including one in the waning seconds of the Lafayette game.
UMaine showed some determination and heart in the second half against Montana State although the Bobcats used their backup quarterback and reserve running backs in that half. UMaine head coach Jordan Stevens is hoping the second half showing will give his team momentum entering their CAA opener,
“When we execute and play together, we can be an explosive team, offensively, and a very good team, defensively,” said Stevens during Monday’s weekly CAA coaches conference call. “You saw that in the second half and late in the first half. The guys did a great job finishing the game.We got off to a slow start and it really killed us.”
Stevens said UMaine has talent on both sides of the ball and is focused on building off the positives and correcting mistakes. He said the defense is going to have to do a great job against Robertson.
“I have a lot of respect for Derek as a man, his character, his work ethic and his knowledge of the game,” said Stevens, referring to his former quarterback. “He’s like having a coach on the field.”
Monmouth has six players with five or more receptions and four with eight or more.
UMaine quarterback Carter Peevy is coming off a good showing against Montana State as he completed 18 of 31 passes for 244 yards and two TDs. He was intercepted once. They were his first two TD passes as a Black Bear after transferring from Mercer University.
He ran for a TD in their season-opening 17-14 win over Colgate.
“His accuracy was really good all evening. I have been really impressed with Carter’s ability to grow within our offense and his leadership has grown more and more,” Stevens said. “His steadiness has shown and that’s something we’re going to need throughout.”
Stevens said his team will have a sizable challenge against Monmouth.
“They’re very talented on both sides of the ball,” he said. “It’s going to be a competitive game.”
Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan echoed a similar sentiment about UMaine.
“The thing that jumps out at you is they have 23 graduate students. That is a very, very big number. They’re a veteran team, an experienced team,” said Callahan. “They have 15 starters who played for them a year ago.”
Callahan said Maine’s offense creates problems because of its balance.
“They have a number of skilled players and they use them all. They are very diverse in what they do and do a really good job mixing up the run and the pass. They are very balanced,” Callahan said. “On the defensive side, they’re a veteran unit. They have 11 graduate students in their two-deep depth chart. They’re a very aggressive unit that keeps coming at you.”
