The Owls had no answer for Tigers running back Greg Desrosiers Jr., who rushed for 204 yards with three touchdowns.
BOCA RATON — The struggles continue for Florida Atlantic’s football team as the Owls lost 55-26 to Memphis in their first American Athletic Conference matchup of the season.
FAU (1-3, 0-1) trailed 17-16 at halftime but was outscored 38-10 in the second half — 31-7 in the fourth quarter — as the Owls dropped their second consecutive game. Quarterback Caden Veltkamp completed 31 of 50 passes, and scored a rushing touchdown.
The Owls had no answer for Tigers running back Greg Desrosiers Jr., who rushed for 204 yards with three touchdowns. Quarterback Brendon Lewis completed 13 of 19 passes and two touchdowns along with two rushing touchdowns.
“When you peel it all back and you look at it, it’s all self-inflicted wounds,” Owls coach Zach Kittley said following the loss.
Additionally, FAU lost two key players during the game. Running back Gemari Sands suffered a foot injury in the second quarter. His status is uncertain, Kittley said. Sands is the Owls’ leading rusher with 245 yards; he had 13 yards on five carries before exiting. Linebacker Leon Hart, the team's leading tackler, was ejected in the fourth quarter after picking up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Florida Atlantic will look to get back on track on Oct. 4 when the Owls travel to Houston to play the Rice Owls.
Here are the takeaways from the Sept. 27 loss to Memphis:
Caden Veltkamp delivers solid bounce-back performance
Veltkamp threw three interceptions in a 38-28 loss to Florida International on Sept. 13, a step back from hisfive-touchdown performance against Florida A&M the week prior.
Against Memphis, Veltkamp played a much cleaner game, postinga 62 percent completion percentage with zero interceptions. However, despite punching in a rushing touchdown, Veltkamp failed to find the end zone through the air.
“I was just taking what they were giving me,” Veltkamp said. “I wasn’t trying to force the ball, force the ball down field when it didn’t need to be, took my check downs when they were there.”
Despite the lack of explosive plays through the air, Veltkamp is confident he can remain aggressive in Kittley’s offense without turning the ball over.
“I’m a veteran player, so I have to understand when we need to take our shots, and when we just need to get five [yards] here, get six [yards] here,” Veltkamp said.
FAU unable to stop Memphis rushing attack
The Tigers did most of their damage on the ground, rushing for 291 yards on 46 attempts with five touchdowns. Desrosiers Jr. had his way with the Owls’ defense, including a 90-yard touchdown run that gave Memphis a 24-16 lead in the third quarter.
Two weeks after allowing FIU quarterback Keyone Jenkins to rush nine times for 71 yards and a touchdown, the Owls once again struggled to contain the quarterback on the ground. Lewis ran 17 times for 60 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
“We’ve got to fit the run better,” Kittley said. “We’ve got to make sure we have better eye discipline, got to make sure we’re hitting our gaps, really that’s what that comes down to.”
Owls surrender costly touchdown in 4th quarter
With the Owls trailing 31-19 early in the fourth quarter, Hart forced a strip sack fumble on Lewis that was recovered by Khmari Johnson and brought back to the Memphis 19-yard line.
The Owls scored on a 1-yard run from Xavier Terrell to cut the lead to 31-26, shifting the momentum in FAU's favor.
However, the Tigers quickly pushed their lead back to 38-26 as Lewis found Cortez Braham for a 73-yard touchdown. It was Cortez’s second touchdown of the night as he finished with six receptions for 127 yards. From there, it quickly snowballed into a blowout loss for FAU.
“Just bad football by us,” Kittley said. “Right there, they had the ball multiple times and it really inflated the score.”
Owls commit 10 penalties in loss to Tigers
A good reason for the Owls’ fourth-quarter collapse stems from their lack of discipline.
FAU committed 10 penalties for a loss of 62 yards. Five of those came in the fourth quarter. Hart, who led the team with 23 tackles, was part of that flag flurry.
“Maturity, that’s what it comes down to,” Kittley said. “Those couple of penalties there late, that’s not who we are. That’s one of the things I’m more frustrated with than anything, just that lack of composure late."
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FAU falls to Memphis as RB Gemari Sands injures foot, LB Leon Hart ejected
Category: General Sports
