UTSA could not pull off the win on the road against a tough Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles team. Despite outscoring Southern Miss. in the second half, the Roadrunners suffered their second straight loss by a score of 27-17 and have now fallen to 3-5 on the season with a 2-2 record in conference play.

Once again, the offensive struggles continued for UTSA as they were unable to earn 200 yards of offense for the second time in their last three games. For the first time this season, Cordale Grundy did not start at quarterback for UTSA. Instead, freshman Jordan Weeks got the start. However, his play did not provide the spark the offense hoped for as he went 12-of-27 for 117 yards.

Many things didn’t go UTSA’s way, but here are the three biggest factors that contributed to the loss.

Time of Possession

Southern Miss. controlled the game from start to finish by winning the time of possession battle in a big way. The Golden Eagles possessed the ball for 36:35 compared to UTSA’s 23:25, and it showed. Southern Miss. was able to keep the UTSA defense on the field for long periods of time, and their offense ran 79 plays throughout the course of the game and had 24 first downs. The Golden Eagles turned the ball over three times, but by consistently piecing long drives together and controlling the clock, they were able to overcome them.

When UTSA did get the ball, they could not drive the ball downfield. The Roadrunner offense only had two drives that went for more than five plays, resulting in punter Yanni Routsas having to punt the ball nine times for UTSA. The UTSA defense was on the field way too long. Southern Miss. had 487 yards of total offense compared to UTSA’s 174.

Failure to establish the run

UTSA has not run the ball too well this season, and the story continued against Southern Miss. Despite having 26 rushing attempts, UTSA only mustered 57 rushing yards on 2.2 yards per carry. The majority of the rushing yards came on a long 43-yard run by receiver Matt Guidry. Other than that, UTSA could not get much going in the running game.

Jalen Rhodes had six carries for seven yards and Daniels had two carries for seven yards. The offensive line did not win the battle in the trenches and the running game suffered because of it. Quarterback Jordan Weeks was also sacked six times, which hurt the rushing yardage totals and was a testament to the poor play of the offensive line.

Uncharacteristic poor run defense

The strong point of UTSA’s defense this season has been the front-seven and their strong run defense. They’ve held nearly every opponent to under their rushing total average and have been a force to be reckoned with. However, Southern Miss came into the matchup looking to run the ball more than throw it which is strange considering most of their success comes through the air. But, their strategy seemed to pay off as they rushed for 218 yards.

The Golden Eagles were averaging only 98 rushing yards per game before the game, so many thought UTSA would shut down their rushing attack easily. That wasn’t the case. Southern Miss freshman running back Trivensky Mosely had 26 carries for 142 yards. Meanwhile, Steven Anderson ran nine times for 51 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Jack Abraham added a rushing touchdown of his own as well. While the UTSA defensive did force three turnovers including a pick six, the 487 yards of total offense they allowed was way too much to overcome.