With its starting quarterback on the bench and an immaculate set of bronzed ribs on the line, the UAB football team was not in the business of settling for field goals.

Beginning with a first down outside the Memphis red zone, following a swift march down the field and time ticking well under a minute, Harrison Barker scrambled up the middle into the red zone but an incomplete pass and a short run forced a fourth-down decision in a tie game.

Rather than take the easy points on a makeable field goal attempt, UAB opted for the conversion and running back Lee Beebe gained a yard before being stood up at the line to gain.

It was not the first missed opportunity, or the last, as the Blazers fell victim to its own tomfoolery in a 45-21 loss to Memphis in the renewal of the “Battle for the Bones,” Saturday, Oct. 21, at Protective Stadium in Birmingham.

UAB falls to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in the AAC entering the bye week and must win its final four games to attain bowl eligibility.

“We felt like we had one chance of winning this game with how injured we were, with Jacob not playing, and that was to control it offensively with a high volume of runs and keep them off balance by switching quarterbacks in and out,” UAB head coach Trent Dilfer said. “(We) used misdirection and deception to create yards and, ultimately points, and it worked to a T in the first two drives.”

Read more on UAB football:

Rotating QBs, turnovers doom UAB in loss to Memphis

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UAB starting quarterback Jacob Zeno suffered a concussion late in the loss at UTSA and cleared protocol before kickoff — even going through warmups before Dilfer ultimately decided to keep his primary signal-caller out of the game.

“In the back of my head, I knew I wasn’t going to play Jacob, even if he was cleared,” Dilfer said. “I’ve had 14 concussions and as you guys get to know me, you can tell the effects. I don’t want to expose a young person to a possible head injury. I’m relentless when it comes to other things but when it comes to the head, we’re not going to mess with it.”

In Zeno’s absence, the trio of Harrison Barker, Landry Lyddy and Trace Campbell all took snaps but only the former two led the Blazers to scoring drives. Barker and Lyddy also had two turnovers each, three of which resulted in touchdown drives from Memphis.

Barker, who received his first career start, was 5-of-10 for 58 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown pass to Tejhaun Palmer and a pick-six off a tipped ball, and added 37 yards on the ground. Lyddy finished 6-for-9 passing for 68 yards, a touchdown and a pair of interceptions, and Campbell was 4-of-9 for 47 yards while rushing for 38 yards.

“You can’t turn it over and grade out well,” Dilfer said. “That’s just the reality of this position. I had a lot of games where I played well, made some incredible throws, but turned it over and in my book that was a bad game. They prepared really well and handled the nerves of the game pretty well. But we just can’t be careless with the football.”

Despite the turnovers, UAB had opportunities to score points but twice turned the ball over on downs inside the Memphis red zone. The first such occurrence came on the UAB’s initial possession of the second quarter with the Blazers driving to the 12-yard line and failing to convert a 4th-and-2 with the game knotted up at 14-all.

“We made a decision at the beginning of the season to be hyper-aggressive with this team,” Dilfer said. “I’m not completely beholden to the metrics, the data, but I’m leaning heavily on it, especially with this team, knowing that we have to try to steal possessions and protect our defense. We needed to be ahead by 7-14 points in the first half to have a chance in this ballgame.”

The Blazers once more drove deep into Memphis territory, driving 44 yards down to the 26-yard line, and gained seven yards on a Barker run up the middle and a 1-yard gain from Brown to set up fourth-and-short inside the red zone with less than 30 seconds remaining in the first half. The ensuing fourth-down conversion was unsuccessful by Beebe and UAB crossed midfield only once in the second half on its final possession of the game.

“The game really turned, in my opinion, by not getting that fourth down at the end of the first half,” Dilfer said. “It was one of the more critical errors. That’s a turnover, that’s a six-turnover game when not converting the fourth downs.”