Whether it was a missed field goal at the end of regulation or a blown double-digit lead – which happened on two separate occasions – heartbreak and frustration always finds a way to linger with the Minutemen.

Saturday’s 42-41 loss to Miami (OH) – which featured a 27-point lead vanish – was no different.

But the biggest takeaway wasn’t UMass’ inability to close games. Instead, the bigger question coming out of Saturday’s game was a questionable decision by Minutemen coach Mark Whipple at the very end of the game which could haunt UMass for some time.

Trailing by a point with one minute, 13 seconds left, UMass quarterback Blake Frohnapfel was embarked on an 80-yard drive with zero timeouts in an attempt to rescue his team. With the help of a fourth down conversion and defensive pass interference penalty on a third-and-long situation, UMass drove down to the three-yard line with three seconds left on the game clock.

Initially, it appeared that all Frohnapfel needed to do was spike the ball to stop the clock and allow the field goal unit an opportunity to tie the game on a 22-yard field goal attempt.

Only Frohnapfel didn’t spike the football.

He instead hurried his team to the line to run one final play, to win with a touchdown and not a field goal. Frohnapfel found running back Shadrach Abrokwah on a pass into the flats, but Abrokwah was tackled at the two-yard line as time expired on the clock.

“We were putting it in (Frohnapfel’s) hands. It was the same play we’ve scored a couple times on,” Whipple told MassLive after the game. “With three seconds, we could have probably spiked it. But they were scrambling around and we just took a shot at it.”

“I was only thinking about time running down. I just ran the play he called,” Frohnapfel said. “I was hoping he would call that play in that situation and go for it.”

After last weekends game against Bowling Green, it was going to be hard for Frohnapfel to replicate his 589 yards and five touchdowns performance. But he threw four touchdowns in the first half against Miami and led UMass to a commanding 41-21 halftime lead.

Although Frohnapfel’s numbers speak for themselves, it was his ability to spread the ball to different receivers in the first half that impressed the most, as each of his touchdown passes found a different receiver.

The game looked to be over after Abrokwah, who finished with 128 yards on 25 carriers, ran in his only touchdown giving UMass a 41-14 lead with exactly two minutes left in the first half. However, on the ensuing possession, Miami drove down 68 yards in nine plays to score and cut the lead to 20 going into halftime.

“We’ve got to learn to play with a lead,” Whipple said. “Credit Miami, their kids played hard and came back.”

Frohnapfel’s biggest mistake came with 10:42 remaining in the fourth quarter when he tried to lob a pass over Miami’s Marshall Taylor, only to have his pass intercepted. Seven plays later, RedHawks quarterback Andrew Hendrix hit Sam Martin from 16 yards out to make it 41-35.

On the next UMass drive, Abrokwah fumbled in its own territory giving Miami the ball on the Minutemen’s 45. Hendrix capped off the ensuing drive with a touchdown on a quarterback sneak and Miami took a 42-41 lead.

Hendrix finished 32-for-58 with 437 passing yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for 92 yards on 13 carriers, snapping Miami’s 21-game losing streak, which was the longest in FBS football.

The Minutemen’s next chance to get their first win comes next Saturday when they play another winless opponent at Kent State.

Andrew Cyr can be reached at [email protected], and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.

Correction: A previous version of this story misreported the score of the game. It has since been corrected above.