AMHERST — For the first time this season, UMass can’t blame its defense for a loss.
The Minutemen allowed at least 50 points four times in their first five setbacks, negating any points the offense was able to put up when it had the ball. But on Saturday, the defense accomplished its main task of limiting Coastal Carolina on the scoreboard.
The Chanticleers were held to a field goal in the first half and didn’t convert any of their two takeaways into points. Even though Coastal Carolina scored touchdowns on its first three drives of the second half, the UMass defense largely kept the Chanticleers bottled up and gave its offense every chance to claw back into the game.
Instead, Coastal Carolina walked out of McGuirk Alumni Stadium with a 24-13 win as the Minutemen self-destructed on offense.
“If you would have told me we would have held them to 24, I would have thought we would have won,” UMass coach Mark Whipple said. “We just didn’t play as well as we needed to on offense.”
The Minutemen (2-6) entered the halftime locker room with a 6-3 lead thanks to a pair of Cooper Garcia field goals and two missed attempts off the foot of Coastal Carolina’s Massimo Biscardi. UMass racked up 250 yards in the opening 30 minutes and ran a play in Chanticleers’ territory on all but one possession.
Yet it wasn’t enough for the unit to find a way into the end zone on those drives. UMass stalled at the Coastal Carolina 4-yard line on its first drive after a false start penalty on first-and-goal and had to settle for a Garcia field goal. It fell behind the chains on its next possession after Ross Comis was sacked, leading to a punt from the Chanticleers’ 40. Possession No. 3 was also hindered by a false start inside the red zone and ended with a field goal.
“I felt like we played really well, we just didn’t finish a lot of drives,” junior receiver Sadiq Palmer said. “We just have to finish those drives. It was nothing that they did, most of them were off penalties or a dropped pass, it was on us mostly. I feel like we were pretty good, but we’re going to have to go back in practice and fix the little things.”
Palmer and senior Andy Isabella were the least of UMass’ concerns against Coastal Carolina. The junior hauled in seven passes for 139 yards, including making a difficult 22-yard touchdown grab while being held in the end zone. Meanwhile, Isabella caught 10 passes for 174 yards, marking the third straight game he had at least 10 receptions.
UMass’ missed opportunities came back to hurt in the second half when the defense faltered on two big plays. Moments after the Minutemen’s only touchdown restored UMass’ lead, Coastal’s Malcolm Williams blew past the secondary and was wide open for Fred Payton to toss a 61-yard touchdown pass. On the Chanticleers’ next drive, Payton threw a 50-50 ball to the corner of the end zone and CJ Marable climbed over Brice McAllister to haul in a 21-yard score.
Those two explosive plays were the only two times the UMass defense blinked the entire night.
“The big keys were they threw the wheel route and we blew the coverage,” Whipple said. “Then they threw the other wheel route and they made a good play over Brice. When they had the opportunity, they made them for touchdowns and we didn’t. That was a big difference.”
Coastal Carolina (4-3) also threw a wrench in UMass’ plans by alternating quarterbacks on at times a play-by-play basis. Kilton Anderson started the game after missing the Chanticleers’ previous two contests and backup Bryce Carpenter also made a handful of appearances. It was the addition of Payton to that rotation that was the new wrinkle, and the freshman made his snaps count with 107 yards passing and 44 yards rushing.
“That was kind of interesting, we didn’t think they would necessarily do that,” McAllister said. “We just stuck to our game plan. All their quarterbacks are kind of similar, they like to run the ball, so that was actually very helpful.”
Even trailing by two scores, UMass still had chances to claw its way back into the game. On the drive following the Chanticleers’ third touchdown, the Minutemen marched down the field before a pass to Isabella that would have given UMass a first down inside the red zone was wiped out by a holding penalty. Still, Jordan Fredericks gained back most of the penalty yardage to set up fourth-and-4 from the Coastal Carolina 17-yard line.
However, senior quarterback Andrew Ford was sacked by Jave Brown, who came in unblocked on a blitz to end the threat. Even worse, Ford was shaken up on the play and had to be helped off the field as he struggled to put weight on his right leg.