Charlotte 49ers football: Maryland’s late surge lifts Terps to 38-20 victory

There are fast starts, and then there is what happened in College Park on Saturday night. But Biff Poggi and the 49ers just couldn’t sustain it.

Despite Charlotte’s quick 14-point advantage just three minutes into the game, Mike Locksley’s Maryland Terrapins walked the 49ers down, scoring 38 consecutive points in a 38-20 win.

The final score isn’t an indicator of how close the game was, but Maryland’s offensive line imposed its will in the final 30 minutes, proving too much for the 49ers. What was a 17-14 game early in the fourth quarter got away from Charlotte late, with costly turnovers and the lack of a passing attack at fault.

Poggi put the loss on himself following the game.

“It was pretty much a dead-even ball game for three quarters. We were right there with 15 minutes to go and we just unraveled,” Poggi said. “I made a crucial mistake in the third quarter when it was 17-14. We were driving, and it was a fourth and four, and we wanted to go for it. We were going to try and draw them offside and call a timeout, but I just decided not to do that, and I thought it hurt the momentum of the football team. It was a critical error.

“As I said, coaches don’t win games; players do. But coaches can lose them, and I thought I hurt the team tonight doing that,” Poggi continued. “The kids fought like hell. They are tough kids. I told them I wouldn’t want to be in any other locker room. There’s no rest for the weary.”

Charlotte, trailing by 10 points with nine minutes to play, had life following Jalon Jones’ 48-yard scramble to put the 49ers in scoring position. Following the huge play, Jones threw Charlotte’s upset bid right to Donnell Brown, who recorded the Terrapins’s first turnover of the day.

Maryland tailback Roman Hemby put the Terrapins on his back in the game’s final quarter, running wild on the 49ers’ defense, totaling 19 carries for 162 yards and the game-sealing score.

Charlotte battled throughout but must find ways to sustain drives and put points on the board with consistency.

Here are three things we learned in the loss:

Offense needs creativity

Despite the hot start, Charlotte’s offense struggled mightily across the final three quarters. Mike Miller’s offense is built to play with a lead. 12, 13-personnel, fullbacks, H-backs, and a downhill rushing attack is what Charlotte prides itself on. But the 49ers are going to need more from QB Jones if they are to achieve their lofty goals of winning the American Athletic Conference.

After a two-touchdown, two-interception performance in Week 1, Jones again turned the ball over twice in Saturday’s loss.

“The one interception he threw was tough. He ran the ball well and controlled the offense well. That’s

really not good enough for us to win out of the quarterback position,” Poggi said of Jones.

The senior quarterback completed just eight of his 15 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown through the air, as well as leading the team in rushing with 16 carries for 67 yards. He also fumbled a snap once the game was out of reach.

Poggi knows that Charlotte isn’t good enough on offense.

“We can’t win like that. We are not good enough on offense to win if we don’t possess the football,” Poggi said of the even time of possession battle. “Our defense is really good, as y’all saw, but they can’t play 30-35 minutes, that’s unreasonable. We were 2-10 on third down. I mean that is horrendous, and it says a lot about our defense and the scrappiness of our football team that we got beat by 18 when we should’ve been beaten by 118.”

Charlotte had its chances, but misses by Jones, self-inflicted penalties and troublesome offensive line play plagued the 49ers.

Crucial calls

The referees played a factor early in Saturday night’s contest.

With missed calls, negated touchdowns, stalled drives, questionable targeting calls and unpenalized groin punches — it was a busy night for the stripes.

The most troublesome call for the 49ers came early in the second quarter, clinging to a 14-3 lead.

Charlotte was putting together one of its best drives of the evening when Jones dropped a picture-perfect pass into the outstretched hands of Colorado transfer Jack Hestera, who looked to reel in a 28-yard completion to put the Niners in scoring position.

Despite being ruled a catch on the field, it was overturned and called incomplete as the ball bobbled upon contact with the ground. In what seemed far from indisputable evidence to overturn the call, Charlotte’s drive stalled as Jones was sacked on the ensuing third down play.

That changed everything, according to linebacker Demetrius Knight, who recorded the first pick-six of his career in the first quarter.

“Those were vital parts of the game. If they rule that a catch, I truly believe we score again on that drive, and they lose all their hope and energy. We had the energy, and the looks on their sideline were amazement. They weren’t expecting us to start out hot like that,” Knight said. “You could see their spirit leaving their sidelines. As an opposing team, you feed on that type of stuff. It went how it went.”

Charlotte was, however, bailed out late in the first half by a phantom offensive pass interference call, negating what would have been the Terrapins’ first touchdown of the day, which would’ve evened the score at the half.

Poggi kept it brief on the officiating following the loss.

“You can’t blame the officiating for losing the game, but it didn’t help, I’ll tell you that.”

49ers are much improved

Poggi is not one for moral victories. But there is a lot to be said for the product Charlotte put on the field, despite the crushing loss.

“I told them that I knew they hurt inside because they care so much about this,” the 49ers’ coach said. “I know this wasn’t the result they were expecting, and I apologized to them for my poor performance coaching (Saturday).”

Maryland embarrassed Charlotte 56-21 last season in a game that was never a contest. Saturday night was much different.

There have been doubts all off-season. There were some doubts following the 24-3 victory over FCS program South Carolina State.

But Charlotte was competitive against a formidable Big Ten team and must build on that with two non-conference games left before the AAC slate begins.

One positive was the fast start, and Poggi knows that the next step is sustaining it.

Despite needing more than 20 minutes of game clock to find the end zone in Week 1, Jones and the 49ers needed just five plays to shock the Terrapin crowd at SECU Stadium. Following four consecutive runs, Jones uncorked his longest pass of the season, finding a wide-open Jairus Mack for a 48-yard touchdown to put Charlotte on the board first. Mack recorded his first collegiate 100-yard receiving game, catching four of his five targets for 106 yards and a touchdown.

On the ensuing play, Taulia Tagovailoa’s first pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by Knight, the first defensive touchdown for the 49ers since Week 4 of 2022.

Charlotte safety Kameron Howard, who is a true freshman, recorded his second interception in as many games, reading Tagovailoa’s eyes and recording the turnover to keep it a one-possession game in the third quarter. Despite defensive coordinator Ryan Osborn’s bend-but-don’t-break defense, the 49ers’ offense was unable to sustain drives or get in scoring position until the game was well out of reach.

With an undefeated Georgia State team headed to Jerry Richardson Stadium next, Poggi understands the magnitude of Charlotte’s third game with a road trip to Florida the ensuing week.

“We are on the precipice of our season; I know it’s crazy it’s only Week 3. We have to win this game. We just have to.”