BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic suffered a heartbreaking 48-45 loss at the hands of Connecticut on Nov. 22 to leave the Owls with their fifth straight losing season.

Garrison Smith’s 36-yard field-goal attempt sailed wide left as time expired to eliminate FAU (4-7) from bowl-game eligibility with only a season-ending home game against East Carolina on Nov. 29.

In what was an old-fashioned shootout, the Owls managed to overcome an early 24-3 deficit, and a 41-31 deficit in the fourth quarter, to take the lead late against the Huskies (9-3), but they were unable to finish the job. Quarterback Caden Veltkamp threw for 494 yards and two touchdowns, plus two rushing touchdowns, as the Owls had almost 700 yards of total offense.

“I think these games show a lot about who you are,” FAU head coach Zach Kittley said. “It’s always going to sting when you think back to this one, but there’s a positive to that because I felt like we showed a lot of grit and determination.

Here are the takeaways from FAU’s seventh loss of the season:

Owls needed magic but Garrison Smith misses FG

With FAU trailing 48-45 with 26 seconds left, the Owls were going to need to pull off some magic to either win, or get the game to overtime.

They managed to get the ball UConn’s 18-yard line after a 27-yard completion to Jayshon Platt, and a 29-yard reception to Easton Messer, setting up Smith with a chance to tie the game at 48 and send it to overtime.

Wide left — by a lot.

Just like that, FAU’s valiant effort to snatch a win from the Huskies ended.

“He’s been nails for us all year,” Kittley said. “I said ‘Hey, this ain’t on you.’ Field goal kickers get such a bad rap because they’re supposed to make it. But you can look at every other play, and it could be the same thing.”

Caden Veltkamp has monster day in loss

Despite the loss, Veltkamp shined, completing 42 of 55 pass attempts. He connected with three receivers — Easton Messer, Asaad Waseem, and Dom Henry — for over 100 yards each, with Henry leading the way with 157 yards and a 90-yard touchdown catch.

Veltkamp’s performance kept FAU within striking distance for a large majority of the game, overcoming multiple double-digit deficits to give the Owls a chance to steal a victory. They accumulated 687 yards of total offense, leading Veltkamp, a redshirt junior, to say the team is building something special for the future offensively.

“We’re never going to be a team that just lays down,” Veltkamp said. “I think we showed that tonight, for sure. Guys aren’t going to quit until the fat lady sings, and the clock hits zero.”

FAU’s defense allows 600 yards of offense

While Florida Atlantic’s offense garnered much of the attention, the defense allowed the Huskies to have just as spectacular a performance offensively. UConn accumulated 600 total yards of offense with quarterback JoeFagnano throwing for 446 yards and three TDs, and running back Cam Edwards rushing for 101 yards with two touchdowns.

Despite scoring more than enough points to win, FAU struggled mightily defensively, surrendering multiple leads and failing to come up with key stops late in the contest.

“We knew it was going to be tough sledding on the defensive side of the ball a little bit,” Kittley said. “When we watch this game, we’re going to find ourselves in some really good situations. We’ve got to get the ball down, we’ve got to tackle, we’ve got to wrap up.”

Linebacker Leon Hart said the defense could not get the Huskies off the field.

“We were going out there with the mindset of ‘We need to get off the field,’ ” Hart said. “We didn’t complete our mission.”

Two key turnovers hurt Florida Atlantic

Facing a team that rarely makes mistakes offensively in UConn, the Owls were going to need to play one of their cleanest games of the season to come away with a win. Two key turnovers proved to be highly consequential for Florida Atlantic.

In the first quarter, with the Owls trailing 17-3, Veltkamp was intercepted after being forced out of the pocket, allowing the Huskies to respond with a short touchdown drive to push their lead to 24-3.

FAU was able to overcome that early hole and take the lead but coughed the ball up once again while trailing 34-31 in the fourth quarter. Running back Kaden Shields-Dutton fumbled in UConn territory, swinging the momentum backin the Huskies’ favor late in the game. UConn’s ensuing drive resulted in a touchdown to give them a 41-31 lead.

FAU was able to battle back and overcome that deficit as well, but those mistakes ultimately made the difference.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Atlantic Owls football will not be in a bowl game after season

Reporting by Justin Backer, Special to The Post / Palm Beach Post

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect