University of Maine coach Jack Cosgrove is hoping the Black Bears will slow down when they get to Boston this Saturday. 

Maine (1-0) opens its Colonial Athletic Conference schedule at Northeastern (Saturday, 1p.m.) after surviving a scare in its season-opener against St. Cloud State last Thursday night. The Division II Huskies pushed the Black Bears to overtime before Maine pulled out a 34-27 win with a Mike Brusko 1-yard touchdown run and a goal-line stand by a defense that for the balance of the night looked greener than the Morse Field FieldTurf.

The Black Bears, who dropped down one spot to No. 20 in the FCS poll this week, reviewed the film the next day and it was clear neither the video nor the players were moving in slow motion.

“It was one of those a picture is worth a thousand words situations where the players were seeing everything we were talking about — why we were late, why we weren’t in position,” Cosgrove said. “You could see the game was moving too fast for some of them.”

“It was pretty obvious to us that there was a hesitancy, a tentativeness, an afraid to make a mistake kind of thing on defense,” he added.

The combination of an inconsistent pass rush and a tentative secondary with just seven career starts collectively heading into the opener left lots of room for Huskies’ QB Mitch Watkins (22-for-36, 222 yards, 1 TD) and wide receiver Fred Williams (15 catches, 171 yards, TD) to operate.

“(Watkins) was a good scrambler, so we had trouble containing him,” senior defensive end Jordan Stevens said. “When he got outside of the pocket, that’s when he was making most of his completions. That’s one of the biggest areas that we need to improve on is just containing the quarterback.”

Containing the quarterback can be corrected in practice, but improving the confidence of the more inexperienced defenders requires more than a week of hard work, Cosgrove said. 

“We certainly didn’t see the kind of things we were looking for, like ‘Oh coach, this is easy,'” he said. “That comes with reps. That comes with time. That comes with the experience of making a play and then making another one.” 

Playing without All-American fullback Jared Turcotte (strained groin) and top receiver Landis Williams (broken hand), Maine’s offense made plays after a slow start. Sophomore tailback Derek Session rushed for a career-high 133 yards and a touchdown. Brusko rushed for another 86 yards and two scores while completing 9 of 13 passes for 101 yards.

Aside from two turnovers, Cosgrove was pleased with the offense’s first showing minus two of their top playmakers.

“I liked the way we finished,” he said. “We kind of wore them down a little bit.”

Turcotte returned to practice the day after the opener and is expected to play against Northeastern, as is sophomore punter/kicker Brian Harvey (groin) and sophomore tight end Derek Buttles, who sat out the game for violating the university’s Student-Athlete Code of Conduct. Cosgrove said he was “hopeful” Williams could return as well.

While Maine had its hands full with the Division II Huskies last week, Northeastern’s Huskies couldn’t hang with a Division I FBS program in Boston College in a 54-0 loss last Saturday. Adding injury to insult, starting QB Alex Dulski had to leave the game with an injury and was replaced by redshirt freshman Matt Carroll. Junior running back John Griffin leads the Huskies’ ground game, and Northeastern boasts a veteran defense led by junior strong safety Nate Thellen, a preseason second team All-American.

Maine has won five straight against Northeastern, including a 20-0 shutout in Orono last year. But Cosgrove warned that the Bears could be walking into a trap at Parsons Field.

“They really have a mentality of toughness that surfaces at its highest level when they’re the home team,” he said. “We have to prepare to play a mentally and physically tough football game.”