UMass survived its mistakes during a 36-14 victory over Stonehill.
Joe Harasymiak doesn’t expect the Minutemen to keep getting away with them as they head into MAC play this weekend.
The UMass head coach described his team’s first-half offensive performance against the Skyhawks as “sloppy,” pointing to missed opportunities that kept the Minutemen from taking full advantage of the chances created by their defense and special teams.
“I’m going to count the punt block as a turnover,” Harasymiak said on Monday. “So we had four turnovers. We only scored 13 points out of a possible 28. We started a drive on the 24 after the punt block and we ended up punting.”
UMass eventually pulled away to improve to 3-0, but Harasymiak saw enough on film to know the same kind of performance could produce a different result as the Minutemen prepare to travel to Sacramento State for their first MAC game of the season on Saturday night.
Penalties were at the top of his list.
UMass was flagged nine times for 98 yards against Stonehill. The Minutemen have committed 25 penalties through three games, an average of 8.3 per game, which ranks 115th nationally and last in the MAC
“Penalties right now for our team are an issue,” he said. “That’s what I spent most of my time (Sunday) in the team meeting on.”
Harasymiak used a simple analogy to make his point to the players.
“It’s like being a little kid,” he said. “The stove is hot. Don’t touch it. And if we go touch it, that result is going to be a loss because it’s going to catch up to us.”
The penalties were part of a larger first-half problem against Stonehill.
Harasymiak thought quarterback Pop Watson and the offense as a whole left a lot on the table.
“I think Pop had some chances to whether to pull it, throw it, make some different choices there,” he said. “I thought we had some chances after the catch to break some tackles. We didn’t. And I think they did a good job on their d-line at times knocking us back.
“Overall, the theme, probably missed opportunities. We just got to put it all together.”
The way UMass responded was encouraging. The Minutemen led 13-7 at halftime before scoring 23 points in the second half to put the game away.
“I thought the one positive, obviously, from that standpoint, we came in at half, I kind of talked about that after the game, we kind of recomposed ourselves,” he said.
UMass will make its first trip to California in program history to face Sacramento State on Saturday night.
“We have to play better on the road in the league,” he said. “We cannot not take advantage of those opportunities that we had.”
One area UMass does want to carry into conference play is its turnover margin
“Turnover margin-wise, we’re pretty high up there right now,” Harasymiak acknowledged. “I think we’re plus-7.
“Obviously, our defense is turning it over at a high rate. We’re not really turning it over. So we’re doing a great job there. We got to keep going.”
Harasymiak is hoping to see his squad put together a complete game in all three phases.
“The offense has got to do what they were doing against Rutgers,” he said. “The defense, special teams can’t take a step back. That’s the challenge of the team. That’s the challenge for me as the head coach.
“It’s about the team and you got to connect those guys and keep growing.”
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