SAN ANTONIO — Demeer Blankumsee raced away from safety Elijah Newell, cruising into the end zone for a touchdown that put Memphis football up 10 points.

In that moment early Saturday afternoon at the Alamodome, the Tigers still could make the College Football Playoff. They were in position to make good on all of those preseason expectations — the ones fueled by key returning players, FedEx investment and an expanded playoff that guaranteed access for one team from the Group of Five.

And then, emulating soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo's famous celebration, Blankumsee spun and jumped in the air.

All of the above was gone a couple of hours later — marked not only by Blankumsee's botched celebration and apparent injury (he returned briefly in the second half but did not record any catches) — but also by an offense that couldn't move the ball and a defense that couldn't contain UTSA's tight ends. The Roadrunners scored the game's next 30 points in their 44-36 win, eliminating Memphis from the playoff conversation.

"I feel like I haven't really processed it yet, to be honest," quarterback Seth Henigan said. "This was a big deal, losing this game."

The fourth-down conversions that doomed Memphis against UTSA

They needed only a few feet when the Tigers lined up to go for it on fourth down late in the second quarter. Henigan handed it to Mario Anderson, who got stuffed at the line of scrimmage for no gain.

"We had a couple individuals that got their butts kicked on that play," Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield said. "And that's my job to teach them throughout the week. How to play with better pad level, more physicality and get their feet in the ground. And not to get blown up."

UTSA took over at the Memphis 47 and scored a touchdown seven plays later. Memphis got stuffed on a fourth down on its next drive, but the Roadrunners ran out of time to score before halftime.

Blankumsee had six catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. But he wouldn't be a factor the rest of the way.

Offense stalls in third quarter, and Memphis Tigers can't overcome it

The Memphis offense has been up and down the entire season. It was a talking point at the beginning of the season because the Tigers' defense, which had been a liability for most of last year, had become the strong point of the team.

It was a talking point because the Tigers put up only 24 points against MTSU in late September, then needed a defensive touchdown to get to 21 against South Florida two weeks later.

It was a talking point because there are so many returning starters — among them Henigan, Blankumsee and Roc Taylor.

And it will continue to be a talking point for the rest of the season because of what it did after halftime. The first three drives went punt, punt, punt (all three-and-out). Then an interception by Henigan. Then a fumble by Taylor.

Then a failed fourth-down conversion.

Then another failed fourth-down conversion.

"Just too many mental errors from everyone," Henigan said.

UTSA was already up 20 points by the time the Tigers started to move the ball again. They scored twice in the final minutes to make the final score line respectable, but those 30 unanswered points had already decided the game.

Memphis' loss to Navy on Sept. 21 meant the margin for error had shrunk to zero. Saturday's loss means the season, for all intents and purposes, is over. In the same stadium where Cody Rhodes won the 2023 Royal Rumble, the Tigers guaranteed they'll have to wait at least another year to finish the story they've been so desperately trying to write since the Cotton Bowl season of 2019.

"They all hurt," linebacker Chandler Martin said. "Big or small, it all hurts. Everybody wants to win. We play so hard. A loss is a loss."

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Inside the demise of Memphis' CFP hopes with loss to UTSA