UAB was a better offensive football team last Saturday than it was in its opener.

That's particularly important news considering, for now, the Blazers can't rely on their defense if they want to win games.

Coach Neil Callaway said as much before the Blazers played a nonconference game at Florida Atlantic. And he really didn't have to say it after the Owls hung 554 yards and 49 points on the Blazers in a 15-point FAU victory.

Now the Blazers head into a three-week stretch that includes road games against Tennessee and South Carolina with a defense that is ranked 117th out of 118 in the country.

The defense won't improve overnight so an already productive offense needs to improve for the Blazers to have any chance to break an eight-game losing streak that dates to last season.

The offensive improvement came Saturday because UAB strung two good halves together and unleashed a new way to attack a defense. UAB ran 35 plays for 207 yards in the first half and 48 plays for 257 yards in the second half.

The Blazers scored 17 points in each half and were five yards away from another score when the game ended.

That was better than last week when one good offensive half was followed by little offensive success in the second half in a loss to Tulsa.

Part of the reason for the improvement was an evolving offense. Tight ends Jeffery Anderson and Zach Lankford combined for five catches for 73 yards with Lankford scoring his first touchdown as a Blazer. And running back Justin Brooks not only got in a game for the first time but he powered his way to a 10-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to help cut the deficit to eight points.

The most effective addition last Saturday was a new wrinkle that put running back Rashaud Slaughter at quarterback in the shotgun formation. It was the UAB version of the "Wild Hog" formation that Arkansas used the past two seasons with Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden.

Callaway said after the game the Blazers added this offensive piece during fall camp but Slaughter said it came before that.

"We've been doing this since last year but we just put it in a game today," Slaughter said.

The Blazers had success each time they went to the formation against FAU. UAB used the formation on a variety of downs and most of the time Slaughter ran the ball.

"The play we scored (on a Justin Brooks run), they probably figured I was going to run the ball but I handed it off," Slaughter said. "It catches them off guard and it's unexpected when we do stuff like that."

Callaway was hesitant to talk about the formation afterward, a pretty good hint his team will continue to use Slaughter in that role. Callaway did add, "There's a lot you can do out of it, a lot of reasons to do it."

Obviously, UAB will pick its spots to run the formation.

Taking the ball out of Joe Webb's hands too many times is not a good idea considering he threw for 326 yards and had a team-best 66 rushing against FAU. But this gives the opposing defense one more thing to worry about, not only on Saturdays but during its preparations.