Charlotte football hangs with Memphis early but Tigers pull away from 49ers in AAC battle

DeShawn Purdie is the X-factor for the Charlotte 49ers, and despite suffering another heartbreaking loss Saturday — to Memphis, 33-28 — it’s clear that Purdie is the best option at quarterback moving forward.

For the second consecutive season, Charlotte’s (3-5, 2-2 AAC) matchup with Memphis (7-1, 3-1 AAC) featured a back-and-forth affair, highlighted by 19 points in the final 1:56 of action and capped off by Seth Henigan’s game-winning touchdown pass to Roc Taylor, putting the Tigers up by three with 31 seconds to play.

Despite the thrilling ending, this game looked like it could get out of hand midway through the action, with Memphis taking a two-score lead and leaning on Tigers’ tailback Mario Anderson Jr.’s 141 yards on the ground.

Tied at the half, Memphis dominated the third quarter and took a 14-point advantage to the final quarter, where Purdie would hit his stride and give Charlotte the spark that nearly ignited Biff Poggi’s biggest win as head man. But self-inflicted wounds and a defensive lapse came at the worst possible time, thwarting Charlotte’s 21-point fourth quarter and sending the 49ers back to the Queen City with their second loss in a row.

A dejected Biff Poggi told the media that his team played well, but just couldn’t pull off the upset on the road.

“I thought we played pretty well. I’m not ready to throw the defense or anybody else under the bus. It was a really good college football game, and we just lost it at the end,” Poggi said.

With a short week to prepare for a Halloween showdown against Tulane (6-2, 4-0 AAC), here are four takeaways from Saturday’s loss.

Niners start fast, sort of

Hammered home all week by Poggi and his staff, Charlotte got the fast start they desperately needed.

Entering Saturday’s game, Charlotte had been outscored 57 to 17 in the first quarter, scoring just two touchdowns in the first 15 minutes of action all season — both against East Carolina.

With quarterback Max Brown getting the start, Charlotte opened the action with an eight-play, 67-yard touchdown drive with Cartevious Norton’s first touchdown capping it off from 17 yards out. Brown opened the game completing all three of his passes on the opening drive and looked to have shaken off the rust from the troublesome performance at Navy just a week prior.

But despite the defense forcing two straight punts and giving the offense an opportunity to extend their lead, Mike Miller’s offense became stagnant with Brown at the helm.

“As I said all week, we have two good quarterbacks and we were going to play both,” Poggi said. “I thought Max started the game really well, and then we bogged down there in the second quarter, and we decided we’d go with Purdie in the second half.”

QB carousel

After the opening drive touchdown, Charlotte had six consecutive empty drives accumulating 22 total yards, with the low coming with Brown’s fourth interception in two games — resulting in the switch at signal-caller.

Charlotte’s defense would bail out Brown following the interception, as Dontae Balfour intercepted Henigan on the goal line, keeping the score knotted at seven before the half.

And before switching to Purdie, Poggi sent Trexler Ivey in for the final snap of the first half — albeit just for a hand-off. And then it was Purdie time.

Despite a slow start for the true freshman as rain drenched Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium to open the second half, Purdie did what he does best — connect on the deep ball.

Following six straight lifeless drives, Norton’s 22-yard run set up Purdie’s lone touchdown of the afternoon, finding his favorite target O’Mega Blake in the back of the endzone for a 39-yard score, kickstarting his 128-yard performance — his second 100-yard game of the season.

Purdie’s game was far from perfect, completing just five of his 14 passes for 152 yards, a touchdown, and an interception, but the true freshman brings an “it-factor” that Charlotte desperately needs at signal-caller.

“He’s highly confident in his teammates, the scheme, and his talent. He made some unbelievable plays,” Poggi said of Purdie. “There are plays that you very rarely see anybody in college football make, let alone a guy that’s 18 (years old).”

Purdie found Blake on three separate occasions, all for passes of 30 yards or more, highlighted by a 57-yard-deep ball in the game’s final two minutes to put Charlotte in position to retake the lead. And with Norton pouring in 86 yards and two touchdowns early in the action, it was Hahsaun Wilson’s turn on the ensuing play following Purdie and Blake’s final connection.

Wilson scampered 18 yards to the endzone to put Charlotte up four with 1:20 play, and Poggi was confident that the 49ers would close out a monstrous road victory.

But Charlotte scored too soon.

Poggi added: “We wanted to take some time off the clock, which is why we ran the ball. But when we did score, we thought we had a real shot to win the game.”

49ers’ late lapse

After taking a narrow lead, Memphis, led by fourth-year starter Henigan, walked Charlotte down. The Tigers needed just 49 seconds to travel 75 yards, with Henigan completing five straight passes, with the fifth finding Taylor in the endzone to cap off the game-winning drive. And despite three sacks early in the action, Charlotte’s edge rushers were nowhere to be found in the game’s final minutes.

With 31 seconds to play and two timeouts in their back pocket, trailing by three points, Charlotte had a chance to force a second-straight overtime game with the Tigers. But an unforced error by Henry Rutledge, dropping his knee to the ground at Charlotte’s own four-yard line while fielding Memphis’ kick, setting the 49ers back and effectively ended the game.

“The knee-down call on Henry (Rutledge) just changed the whole complexion of that last drive,” Poggi added.

Two plays later, Purdie was sacked in the endzone for a safety, and the comeback attempt came up just short. Reminiscent of the comeback victory over Rice in Purdie’s first win, the true freshman put the 49ers in a position to win. But in a game where the defense came up big repeatedly, Ryan Osborn’s unit crumbled on the Tigers’ final drive.

Bright spots

Although a heartbreaking loss in what could be the difference in reaching the six-win total to qualify for bowl eligibility, Charlotte had plenty of bright spots on Saturday. Despite Poggi stating that it’s “too early to tell” if Purdie will be the quarterback moving forward, it’s clear that the 49ers’ offense has a different gear with the 6-foot-5 freshman at the helm.

With just 38 passing yards in the first half, Purdie poured in 152 in the second half, with 146 coming in the final quarter. Six of Charlotte’s eight chunk plays came with Purdie in the lineup, including a picture-perfect back-shoulder fade to Sean Brown early in the fourth quarter.

And on the defensive side of the ball, Charlotte forced a missed field goal, picked off Henigan on the goal line, forced two turnovers on downs, and allowed scores on just four of the Tigers’ seven red zone trips. Safety Mordecai McDaniel played the best game of his career, totaling 12 tackles and a pass breakup. And the trio of Chantz Williams, Demon Clowney and Dre Butler all recorded sacks of Henigan, keeping Charlotte afloat while the offense sputtered early.

For the second time in a row, Charlotte nearly pulled off an upset of the Tigers as double-digit underdogs. And with another huge opportunity to record a signature win against Tulane next Thursday on ESPN, the 49ers aren’t hanging their heads.

“I told them I was really proud of them. They never quit,” Poggi said. “We have an excellent football team, and we do not have time to hang our heads. We played hard.”