MIAMI – Mental mistakes weren’t to blame for UMass’ defensive performance Saturday night. That laid on the shoulders of sloppy tackling.
The Minutemen struggled to corral Florida International running back Shawndarrius Phillips as the 5-foot-11 running back wriggled out of arm tackle after arm tackle. It was a common theme for whoever happened to be cradling the ball for the Panthers as they gashed the UMass up the middle continuously and cruised to a 63-24 victory.
Phillips ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries with six of his totes gaining at least 10 yards. His first touchdown run was a simple four-yard plow, but the sequence leading to his second one was a perfect example of the Minutemen’s struggles.
After an athletic pass breakup by Lee Moses on first down, Phillips broke through two tackles to gain 13 yards. On the next play, Phillips was almost stopped at the line of scrimmage but instead busted through the attempts at tackling him and strolled into the end zone.
Phillips wasn’t the only one who UMass struggled to wrap up either. The Panthers had 16 runs of at least 10 yards in the game and averaged 6.2 yards per carry to total 329 yards on the ground. Napoleon Maxwell busted through three UMass defenders on his three-yard scoring run that gave FIU the lead for good.
The Minutemen allowed only one big play through the air due to a busted coverage, a 35-yard strike to Phillips down the left sideline. However, James Morgan still dissected the UMass secondary for 207 yards on 16-of-23 passing, tossing two touchdowns.
Morgan’s second touchdown pass was a 38-yard play to Maurice Alexander in which Alexander eluded three tackles to turn the short pass into a game-sealing play. It was the fifth of six touchdowns in the first half for FIU, who only punted once in taking a 42-10 halftime lead.
FIU’s six touchdown drives in the first half continued an alarming trend for the Minutemen defense. In its three contests against FBS opponents, UMass has allowed 14 touchdowns on 19 first-half drives and have forced only three punts.
For a brief moment, though, it looked like Michael Curtis might lead UMass on an improbable comeback. The Minutemen forced a fumble on FIU’s first second-half drive and Curtis converted the takeaway into points with a six-yard keeper. Moses then intercepted Morgan on the Panthers’ next possession, and the energy grew on the UMass sideline.
However, the ensuing UMass drive ended when Curtis was sacked and then some more missed tackles gave Alexander an opening up the sideline that he followed for a 69-yard punt return touchdown. The score killed all the momentum UMass was building and the Minutemen never harnessed it again.
One of the bright spots for UMass was its running game, which continued to execute and move the Minutemen down the field. On one first-half possession, the Minutemen moved 62 yards in three plays on the ground: a 13-yard Jordan Fredericks run, a 27-yard dash from Fredericks and a 22-yard gallop by Marquis Young. UMass ran for 199 yards and averaged 5.9 yards per rush.