FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The message UAB football coach Neil Callaway delivered in the visitors locker room at Lockhart Stadium was as positive as he could muster.

"I told them in the locker room, if we keep competing like that, we're going to win some ball games."

A few minutes later, Callaway stood outside the locker room answering questions about his team's 49-34 loss to Florida Atlantic before a crowd of 15,143 on a steamy South Florida afternoon Saturday. At that point, Callaway added one more thing.

"We obviously have to play better defense," said Callaway, whose team fell to 0-2 and travel to Tennessee next.

That's certainly no secret. For the second week in a row the UAB defense helped make a good opposing offense look unstoppable.

On this particular Saturday, it was Rusty Smith and the Florida Atlantic offense piling up 554 yards and scoring touchdowns on seven of nine possessions. Smith was 21-of-34 for 325 yards with three touchdowns, went the entire day without being sacked, helped his team convert on 7-of-10 third-down situations and directed the Owls (1-1) to first-half leads of 14-0 and 21-3.

Add the final numbers to last week's totals in a 45-22 loss to Tulsa and the UAB defense has now surrendered 1,155 yards and 94 points in just two weeks.

UAB cornerback Brandon Carlisle said the damage was self-inflicted.

"It was more just what we didn't do," Carlisle said. "We didn't play our keys and we didn't do what we were supposed to do. We didn't put ourselves in position to make plays we could have made."

Oddly enough, though, it was the first UAB defensive stop of the day that put the Blazers in position to tie the game late in the fourth quarter. After a Florida Atlantic punt, the Blazers were 81 yards away from the end zone with 4:29 to work with.

The Blazers had to like their chances. After all, this is an offense that finished the day with 482 yards on a stunning 83 plays, got 392 yards in total offense from quarterback Joe Webb and received career-high efforts from Frantrell Forrest in receptions (11) and receiving yards (149).

The potential game-tying drive appeared stalled after two plays but Webb converted a third-and-10 by connecting for 22 yards with Jefferey Anderson.

Seven plays later, facing a fourth-and-3 from the FAU 27-yard line, Webb floated a pass toward wide receiver Mike Jones in the left flat while being pressured. The pass landed about five yards past a diving Jones.

"It was really a broken-down play," Webb said. "It was supposed to be a slant and it was covered up. I just tried to hold on for it. When the ball hit the ground, I was like `Man, that's one play that could have changed the whole game.'"

On the next snap, FAU running back Charles Pierre broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and raced 73 yards to ice the game with 40 seconds left.

Webb directed the offense quickly down the field, reaching the FAU 5-yard line, but he misfired on the final three plays of the game and the clock ran out.

Afterward, Webb was in no mood for moral victories but he did take some pride in the Blazers putting themselves in position to win.

"Just because we got down 14 points, that doesn't mean we've got to give up," Webb said. "We got to keep fighting. They saw that today. I wish we could have got a little more help from the defense."