Following its bye week, the Massachusetts football team struggled to find a rhythm and made untimely mistakes to suffer its second loss of the season on Homecoming weekend.

“We made a million mistakes and we had penalties at all the wrong times,” UMass coach Kevin Morris said after the loss.

The Minutemen (4-2, 2-1 Colonial Athletic Association) committed eight penalties for a total of 54 yards while losing the turnover battle, 3-2. The loss marked the third contest in which UMass turned the ball over more times than its opponent and the fifth game in which it committed more penalties than its opponent.

Morris immediately ruled out rust as the cause of the mistakes, citing strong practices earlier in the week leading up to the game.

“We had our three best practices of the year on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,” Morris said.

Prior to Saturday, the most penalties committed by the Minutemen came in the first two weeks against William & Mary and Holy Cross. Against the Tribe, UMass committed eight penalties for 81 yards but went on to win, 27-23. A similar result came over the Crusaders, despite the Minutemen committing a season-high 11 penalties for 104 yards.

UMass was also immune to turnovers resulting in losses before falling to the Spiders. In its 27-14 win over Towson, the Minutemen lost three fumbles, including one inside their own red zone, which set up a short touchdown pass.

Against Stony Brook on the road, quarterback Kyle Havens threw two interceptions on consecutive drives. The giveaways led to back-to-back touchdowns for the Seawolves, who led 14-7 early in the second quarter. Again, UMass rebounded from those mistakes and came back to win in a game that featured four lead changes.

Aside from the penalties and turnovers, the Minutemen had a chance to take control of the contest against the Spiders in the fourth quarter. In an attempt to make it a two-possession game, UMass ran four straight times from the Richmond 1-yard line, but was stuffed by a stout Spiders defense. The missed opportunity ultimately cost the Minutemen vital points.

“They have a very good defense and they took advantage of all those things,” Morris said. “They had the goal-line stand, which was a big play in the game obviously when you look back at the final. Certainly we’re going to look at it and be very disappointed in our own effort, not in terms of effort but in terms of execution.”

The offense, which had been rolling, struggled to move the chains all game. Neither Jonathan Hernandez nor John Griffin eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark for the first time since the win over Holy Cross.

Havens had trouble getting it going as well, finishing the contest 12-of-22 with one touchdown and one interception. His 78 passing yards were a season-low and the first time this year that he was held under the century mark.

“They weren’t moving the ball, but we weren’t moving the ball either,” Havens said. “It was kind of a chess match for a while. We wanted to play better but we just didn’t get it done.”

UMass will look to rebound next weekend against conference foe New Hampshire at Gillette Stadium. Though Morris is concerned that his team came out flat after a bye week, he hopes that they got their worst performance out of their system.

“We have to hope it’s a glitch, certainly,” Morris said. “A lot of the worst came out today in terms of talking about the yards, the penalties and playing smart football, and we didn’t get that done today. It’s certainly a concern.”

Jay Asser can be reached at [email protected].