The FAU Owls will follow up last week’s defeat with a home matchup against the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Blazers on Saturday evening. 

When the two teams met last season, the Blazers won 31-14, a game in which graduate quarterback N’Kosi Perry threw for three interceptions. The secondary is once again a strong point for the Blazers throughout 2022, having nine interceptions total. 

Head coach Willie Taggart acknowledged limiting turnovers has been an area of opportunity as of late for the Owls. 

“We got to stop turning the football over, that’s the key for us, there’s three road games now where we lost by three points and it’s all because of turnovers,” Taggart said. “When you look at this year, we’ve had six turnovers in the red zone, we are not executing when we’re down there.” 

The Owls have lost three of their last four outings, and turnovers have been a common theme throughout the losses with the team putting up five in that span. Accounting for four of the aforementioned five turnovers, Perry has to be sharper with the football if FAU wants to come away with a victory on Saturday. 

Second half woes have also been costly to the Owls all season, as the team has consistently looked flat coming out of the locker room after halftime. Taggart said he is aware of this issue and attributed it to a lack of execution. 

“I think it all goes back to executing and getting the ball to the ballplayers, the guys that can make plays for us,” Taggart said. “It’s not just a third quarter thing; throughout the game, we have to be better at taking advantage of the opportunities our offense is getting.” 

The game is set for Saturday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. CBS Sports Network will head the broadcast.

Kevin Garcia is a staff writer for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email him @[email protected], or tweet him @kevingar658.