It was going to be a tough matchup against the UAB Blazers out in Birmingham for the UTSA Roadrunners. UAB was the 22-point favorite, and many expected UTSA to lose by a wide margin. However, the game ended up being more than a loss. It was an absolute nightmare for UTSA.

The UAB blazers demolished UTSA by a score of 52-3 and improved to 8-1 on the season while remaining undefeated in conference play. Meanwhile, UTSA now falls to 3-6 on the year and has suffered their second three-game losing streak of the season. Right from the get-go, it was evident that UAB was going to run away with the game. UTSA just couldn’t keep up.

Here are the three main factors that contributed to the blowout loss.

Terribly rush D

It’s almost unreal, but UAB put up an insane 419 rushing yards. The Blazers outrushed UTSA 419-84 and had 4 different players rush for 50 yards or more. UAB sophomore running back Spencer Brown had 20 carries for 147 yards and two touchdowns en route to tying the programs single season touchdown record with 13. As a team, UAB averaged 7.9 yards per rushing attempt. They ran over the UTSA defense at will.

For much of the season, the UTSA rushing defense has been fantastic. During the last two games they’ve been uncharacteristically soft. After allowing over 200 rushing yards last week, they have now allowed 637 rushing yards through their last two games.

Failure to put together drives

Same story, different Saturday. Once again, UTSA could not put together long drives and could not keep the UAB offense off the field. Eight of UTSA’s 12 offensive drives did not last longer than 5 plays. To make things worse, their longest drive of the day (11 plays) ended when running back B.J Daniels fumbled the ball near the goal line and turned the ball back over to UAB.

A telling factor to their inability to put together drives was their third down offense. UTSA was 2-12 on third downs and could not extend the drive when put in those situations. Their failure to string together drives resulted in UAB being able to run 70 plays (53 rushing plays) and put up a whopping 668 yards of offense. The time of possession battle was also in big favor of UAB.

Secondary giving up big plays

Just because UAB got most of their yards on the ground, doesn’t mean the secondary is off the hook. UAB was incredibly efficient through the air. UAB quarterback Tyler Johnston III only completed 10 passes on 17 attempts, but yet still had 249 passing yards and three touchdowns. The Blazers averaged 14.6 yards per pass and a whopping 24.9 yards per completion. Compare this to UTSA’s 3.9 yards per pass, and you can see why UTSA’s offense didn’t have as much success.

The Roadrunner secondary was giving up big plays very often, which is why UAB didn’t have to throw all that much. Their efficiency through the air set them up for success on the ground game. When it was all said and done, UAB had three times as many yards of offense than UTSA.

UTSA is now 3-6 and 2-3 in conference play. They will face another tough opponent next week when they play FIU.