UAB quarterback Jacob Zeno completed his first two passes of his hometown return and both resulted in losses with Jermaine Brown Jr. and Amare Thomas taking the brunt on consecutive plays to opposite sides of the boundary.

Facing a third-and-long inside his own red zone, Zeno fell victim to a collapsing pocket and fumbled away possession to Trey Moore on UAB’s initial offensive drive, eventually resulting in a Frank Harris touchdown pass and an early two-score deficit in the first five minutes of the game.

The Blazers dug themselves a six-foot hole from which they could not escape in their 41-20 loss to UTSA, Saturday, Oct. 14, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

UAB falls to 2-5 overall and 1-2 in the AAC following its third straight loss to the Roadrunners.

“It was kind of the same thing that happened at Tulane,” UAB head coach Trent Dilfer said. “We melted down, I don’t know any other way to say it. Blame me, I didn’t have the team ready to play on critical downs.”

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Blazers fall behind early, fade late in loss at UTSA

Rewinding UAB’s 41-20 loss to UTSA in the Alamodome

UTSA hit the ground running from the first-half kickoff, sprinting 75 yards in eight plays and taking a 7-0 lead on a 19-yard run from Robert Henry, who hurdled a Blazer defender for a 14-yard gain on the previous play. The Roadrunners increased the advantage to two scores, following UAB’s opening offensive gaffe, on Harris’ 10-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Cephus.

The Blazers managed to trim the lead to 14-7 on the back of a 10-play, 75-yard drive, capped with a 3-yard run by Zeno, but conceded a long return on the ensuing kickoff that UTSA utilized in extending the gap back to two scores. Both teams matched field goals on the next two possessions, Matt Quinn adding a second field goal inside the final two minutes of the first half, and BJ Mayes ended a UTSA scoring threat with an interception in the end zone — his second pick of the season.

“That gave us some hope there,” Dilfer said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of hope at that point. But this is more than hope, you have to execute again and again and again. We somehow haven’t figured that out so we’ll go back to the drawing board. If you don’t like the way things are going, change the way you do things. We’ll hopefully find the secret sauce for winning football.”

Despite the mistakes and miscues, including six first-half penalties for 48 yards, UAB opened the second half with a 12-play scoring drive and cut the UTSA lead to 24-20 on a 25-yard touchdown run from Jermaine Brown Jr., who finished with 57 yards and a score on the ground while hauling in six receptions for a game-high 116 yards.

“Skull is getting healthier and healthier and really playing at a high level,” Dilfer said. “He shows great leadership too. He comes every single day and prepares like a pro, plays like a pro and we need more players to play like Skull.”

Brown’s touchdown was the final scoring play of the game for the Blazers as UTSA scored on three of its next four possessions — missing a field goal on the fifth — and forced two punts and two interceptions in the second half.

“We competed hard to get back in that game,” Dilfer said. “It was sloppy. I don’t think we did anything great to get back in it, but we kind of fought our way back and then just imploded. Turnovers, missed tackles, personal fouls and so on. It’s not how we’ve been practicing and it’s really frustrating.”