You can’t call it seismic, but there definitely was some type of activity in the press box of Villanova Stadium last Saturday.

In fact, it tended to the head-shaking, hands-on-cranium placing, looking at your neighbor in bewilderment, Philadelphia sportswriter brand of bustle.

And it was because twice in the second quarter of the Massachusetts football team’s game with Villanova last weekend, UMass Head Coach Mark Whipple made the decision to go for it on fourth down.

But the Minutemen came up short both times.

“One of them was from [our] 41-yard line, and you always go for that,” said Whipple, who has been known to take early chances. “The other one [was from the 44-yard line] and they had to call timeout because they weren’t lined up right.

“But then I said, ‘no, I don’t want to show them that we’re young, [so we went for it]. Early on I was a little more conservative…but that’s not the way we play football here. You have to be aggressive.”

In the last year’s game with the Wildcats, UMass went 5-for-5 on fourth down conversions and it is for that reason the Minutemen wound up on the victorious side of a 38-17 decision at McGuirk Stadium.

But the Maroon and White is now, of course, an entirely different team than last year’s 7-4 squad. Redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Guice doesn’t have the luxury of handing the ball off to Marcel Shipp for the guaranteed first down.

Shipp, you see, could deal with mediocre blocking.

But present UMass pigskin carriers Omari Howard and Kevin Quinlan are backs that usually look to their fullback to lead the way.

And with the loss of senior Pete Cariello, who suffered a career ending neck injury on an attempted block a few weeks back in UMass’ 36-6 loss to Hofstra, the Minutemen blocking scheme is now rather frail.

“We went from a guy who’s got three years experience, that has played fullback in our offense, to a guy that’s in his second start,” said Whipple, who must now start freshman Steve Wysocki at the fullback position. “And that was the difference.”

UMass’ pair of second stanza errors last weekend fit perfectly with the thematic dictum for this season.

Refuse to win.

It is just one of those years for Minuteman football. Things obviously aren’t going well, and bad luck is of the ill-fated essence.

UMass is not a bad football team. It is young offensively, and just lacks that winning attitude needed at this level.

And at 1-6 (1-4 Atlantic 10), it is hard to detain self-confidence.

Saturday at McGuirk, the Minutemen welcome Northeastern (3-4, 2-3 A-10), who they have beaten 15 straight times, to McGuirk for a 1 p.m. gridiron date. Last year, Quinlan rushed for 241 yards against the Huskies in Boston, just under 10 minutes from his hometown of Somerville.

A similar performance this weekend could help UMass to its second win. And there’s no question the men in maroon will accept a small miracle.

It’s all they really need.