Florida Atlantic Football found themselves within a touchdown of Memphis in the 4th quarter on Saturday evening, but shortly after it all came crashing down.
Although there were improvements shown from the Owls, especially from Caden Veltkamp and the offense, the “bad quarter” that plagued FAU in their previous two losses came back to hurt them again in a 55-26 loss to Memphis Saturday evening.
The second half was an up and down affair for FAU, finding themselves down by multiple scores for the first time all game in the third quarter, before a forced fumble by Leon Hart and ensuing quick drive from the offense brought them back within 5, 31-26 with 10:20 to play in the 4th.
That score would be the final one for the Owls, as Memphis would respond just 2 plays with a 70 yard touchdown strike from Brendon Lewis to Braham Cortez Jr., which made it 38-26 with 9:32 to play. Memphis would go on to finish the game scoring 24 unanswered, defeating the Owls by 3 scores despite FAU trailing by less than a touchdown early in the 4th quarter.
In all three of FAU’s losses now, they have had one quarter where their opponent has been able to take control of momentum and according to FAU Head Coach Zach Kittley, quarters like those come down to his squad being better at doing their job and avoiding the self inflicted wounds that have plagued them in losses this season.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s again, just bad football by us. We give up a big touchdown there, big pass there, again, a player trying to do a little bit too much. We should stay on top of coverage right there, and instead we undercut it and try to make a big play. And when we do that in that call that we had defensively, we have nobody else on top. And so that’s a play where we’re supposed to stay on top of coverage. And again, we got greedy and didn’t do that so that hurt there.”
“You get to the point where you’re down and you gotta get in some fourth down scenarios, you have a big play. We got a first down. We’re about to be rolling again, holding. So now you’re in third and 20. We gotta get out of those situations. And really, it comes down to us being better at doing our job and not doing the self-inflicted wounds,” Kittley said.
In FAU’s first two games of the season the run defense was an arguable strength of the unit, however over the past two games the Owls opponents have been able to exploit them in the trenches.
After allowing 224 yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground against FIU last week, things spiraled against Memphis, with the Tigers gashing the Owls to the tune of 291 yards and 5 touchdowns, capitalizing on 13 missed tackles by the FAU defense.
With the Owls having to key in on the run, Brendon Lewis was also able to find success stretching the field at times, as although he attempted just 19 passes, and threw for less than 200 yards, on passes 10 yards or longer he completed four of eight attempts for 150 yards and 2 scores and those big plays hurt the FAU defense.
Although there were struggles on the defensive side of the ball, there were improvements in some areas, as the Owls recorded a season high 5 sacks and 8 QB pressures, however Memphis was able to overcome those sacks with a run heavy offense.
The run defense has been a major issue now for FAU over the past two games and with an option based team in Rice coming up on the schedule, Zach Kittley knows run defense is something his defense has to figure out, specifically their discipline and gap assignments.
“We gotta fit the run better, I know that’s a bland question, but that’s all it really comes down to, you know, they do a lot of eye candy, lot of split flow zone, a lot of flat throws, quick motions with the split flow zone. Our guys gotta have, we gotta have better eye discipline. We gotta make sure we’re hitting our gaps. Because really that’s what that comes down to. And again, we got to get lined up. We got to play, we knew, 19 attempts passing the football. We knew exactly that was going to be the kind of game it was going to be. And again, it really just comes back to keep having great eyes and making sure we’re in our gaps and then early too you go watch the tape, we had some really good calls, and we’re just that close from making a huge play and get them in second long scenarios, and getting them out of their rhythm and what they want to do. And it’s going to be one of those things where we’ve gotta clean that up, and you’ve gotta make sure where we need to be able to get that ball and be making those plays that we’re supposed to,” Kittley said.
The offense played turnover free football for the first time this season against an FBS opponent, with Caden Veltkamp bouncing back from his struggles against FIU, completing 31 of 50 passing attempts for 318 yards, no turnovers and a rushing touchdown.
Veltkamp and the passing offense looked improved, with the Owls QB1 not throwing an interception or taking a sack for the first time this season against an FBS opponent, however the running side of the offense struggled, leaving the Owls one dimensional for most of the game.
FAU running backs combined for just 38 yards on 19 carries and an average of 1.8 yards per carry and to make matters worse lead running back Gemari Sands went down with an undisclosed injury in the second quarter and never returned.
The lack of run game for FAU wasn’t the reason why they lost this game necessarily, but Kittley knows that is an area the offense will have to improve in if they want to reach their desired goals this season.
“We knew coming in that it was gonna be a tough day sledding running the football. They’re a run first defensive kind of team, and we look at them statistically, where their weakness has been, it has been through the air. We got to get better, though, if you look at it on paper, right here. Xavier Terrell, two yards per carry. Gemari sands, 2.6 yards per carry. That’s not going to cut it. So again, we got to find new ways to create and again, we knew it was going to be tough coming in. We knew it was going to be probably more of the ball in the air type of game for us. But ultimately, you always got to find those little areas where we got to get better,” Kittley said.
The Owls will look to improve upon their mistakes next Saturday on the road against Rice, which will be a 7 PM game under the lights for Kittley’s first game back in Texas since departing Texas Tech.
