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SAN ANTONIO — Memphis football finally flew too close to the sun.
The Tigers (7-2, 3-2 AAC) have been in three-straight close games against conference opponents they should’ve beat handily, but they managed to eke out wins over North Texas and Charlotte.
Not so on Saturday, when Memphis lost 44-36 to UTSA in the Alamodome, ending the Tigers’ College Football Playoff hopes and likely shutting down their AAC title hopes with three games left to play.
Memphis scored a touchdown on its first drive but had problems keeping pace with the UTSA offense throughout the second game. Roadrunners quarterback Owen McCown threw for 280 yards and four touchdowns, and Memphis’ defense had no answers down the stretch.
The Tigers’ offense went dormant in the second half and started the second half with three punts followed by three turnovers.
Memphis was down by 20 points before scoring twice late in the game to ultimately cut the deficit to only eight points.
Memphis’ goals are out of reach
The talk all offseason was about the Tigers’ expectations: Win the AAC title game and go to the College Football Playoff. Those expectations took a hit with the loss to Navy, but Saturday’s loss officially extinguished any chance of reaching the playoff and all but eliminated Memphis from the AAC title picture.
It’s a major disappointment for a team that was picked to win the AAC in the preseason poll.
4th down decisions are a talking point … again
Memphis missed two key fourth down conversions in last week’s win over Charlotte, and the Tigers were quickly faced with similar situations on Saturday against the Roadrunners. Memphis went for it twice on 4th and 1 in the first half, and both plays resulted in Mario Anderson runs that went nowhere.
The first failed conversation quickly led to a UTSA touchdown.
The Tigers ended up going 0-of-4 on 4th downs in…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/memphis-footballs-college-football-playoff-195654987.html
Author : The Commercial Appeal
Publish date : 2024-11-02 19:56:54
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