If you were writing a script on the worst possible start for a football game, the Charlotte 49ers put the blueprint on national television on Saturday.

Dominated from the game’s opening snap, even with an extra week to prepare for Navy’s triple-option offense, the Charlotte 49ers suffered another lopsided road loss, 51-17 to No. 25 Navy.

The Midshipmen sailed the onslaught from the first play, pouring in 24 first-quarter points and forcing four consecutive takeaways on Charlotte’s first five possessions — and the only possession without a takeaway ended with a 13-yard shanked punt. It was a disaster class of a first quarter, foreshadowing much of the evening in Maryland.

Navy (6-0, 4-0 AAC) commanded all three phases of the game and Charlotte (3-4, 2-1 AAC) head coach Biff Poggi’s disappointment was evident following the gut-check loss as the team fell below .500 again.

With a road trip to Memphis (5-1, 1-1 AAC) up next, followed by a Halloween home bout with Tulane (5-2, 3-0 AAC), Charlotte must pick up the pieces as opportunities to qualify for bowl eligibility begin to wane.

Here are three things we learned in Charlotte’s first American Athletic Conference loss:

MORE QUARTERBACK CONFUSION

After putting up a Jerry Richardson Stadium-best 55 points against East Carolina with true freshman DeShawn Purdie at the helm just two Saturdays ago, Biff Poggi elected to start Florida transfer Max Brown following his return from a thumb injury on his throwing hand. Poggi stated that both quarterbacks — Purdie and Brown — would be ready for action on Saturday in a smoke-and-mirrors effort to stymie the Midshipmen.

The deceit didn’t pan out.

Purdie, who had played three straight halves of excellent football for Charlotte, suffered an injury to his left (non-throwing) hand early in the action against ECU and underwent surgery over the bye week, according to Poggi. Purdie was limited in practice throughout the week, sporting a wrap on his left hand, but warmed up and dressed for the action — although he was medically unavailable.

“We weren’t going to play him and risk it,” Poggi said. “He’ll be ready to go with another week. The reason he couldn’t play today was he has a brace on it. He just can’t catch a snap, but that will come off this week and then we’ll make a decision next week on who’s going to be the quarterback.”

Purdie has appeared in four games this season (North Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Rice and ECU), and could preserve his redshirt status if he doesn’t return to the lineup this season. Purdie was a three-star prospect out of Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore, where he accrued offers from Maryland, James Madison and Akron before committing to Charlotte.

The 49ers have seen multiple quarterbacks play in five of their seven games this season, both by injury and coach decisions.

ROLLING WITH BROWN

After a four-game absence following thumb surgery, Brown returned to the lineup against the Midshipmen — and it was a disaster. Brown was pressured early, tossing interceptions on his first two passes and was pulled in favor of third-string quarterback Trexler Ivey — who tossed a pick-six on his first drive.

“You cannot win if you don’t have good quarterback play, and we didn’t have it today. That’s just the truth,” Poggi said.

Following Ivey’s struggles against the Navy blitz — he completed just one pass to a 49er — Poggi elected to re-insert Brown, and Charlotte’s offense found a spurt of life.

Trailing by 38 points, an explosive kick return from Henry Rutledge set the 49ers up in the red zone, where they ultimately settled for three points to rid the scoreboard of a goose egg. Brown followed that possession by connecting with Colin Weber on a flea-flicker trick play, which set up a 20-yard deep pass to wideout O’Mega Blake, finding his fellow SEC transfer in the back corner of the end zone.

Brown tossed his second and final touchdown of the day to wideout Duane Washington Jr., with the sophomore wideout reeling in his first-career score from 13 yards out — but that was the extent of Charlotte’s bright spots.

“(Thomas) is a young kid but a veteran at heart. Truly a pro. Very well deserved. It felt really good, that’s my dog,” Brown said of Thomas.

The redshirt sophomore signal-caller concluded his performance with three interceptions, a fumble, seven completions on 16 attempts, two touchdowns and 197 total yards.

“I don’t think it’s really rust. When you get out there, there’s no excuse. I need to find a way to turn it on quicker,” said Brown. “I got to be ready to play from the snap. No excuse. It’s football, once you’re out there, you’re out there.”

SHORT FIELDS AND BAD DEFENSE

Make no mistake — Navy is the real deal. The Midshipmen have scored 34 points or more in every outing this season and needed just the first half to exceed that total (38) on Charlotte’s defense. But with two weeks to prepare, Charlotte’s defense was overmatched from the game’s opening play.

Fullback Alex Tecza, who gashed Charlotte for two long scoring runs a season ago, picked up where he left off with a 26-yard run on the first play and followed it by catching and running for a 46-yard score from Navy quarterback Blake Horvath.

Horvath notched three touchdowns to as many different receivers on just seven completions, gashing Charlotte’s secondary with regularity early in the action and earning a well-deserved fourth-quarter rest.

Tecza needed just nine minutes of action to accumulate three touchdowns, capitalizing on each of Charlotte’s turnovers, which ballooned to five total on the night. The Midshipmen outscored Charlotte on points-off-takeaways alone, with 24 in the first half – 31 on the game.

Interceptions on Brown’s first two passes, pick-sixes of Ivey and Brown, and a fumble on Hahsaun Wilson’s first carry spelled disaster, setting up the defense in short fields time after time. But the 49ers couldn’t make the necessary stands to stop the bleeding, nor take the ball away.

The short fields were a commonality for Ryan Osborn’s defense, with the Midshipmen’s average drive starting at their 44-yard line. Five of Navy’s drives started in Charlotte territory, resulting in 31 points.

Charlotte did, however, break Navy’s streak of 19-straight red zone touchdowns, converting on every opportunity this season by forcing a short 22-yard field goal in the first quarter. Navy would score on all five of their red zone trips, marking four touchdowns in five appearances inside the 20.

The 49ers have been consistently inconsistent all season, stemming not just game to game — but half to half at times. And with five more games remaining, the 49ers need three wins to qualify for bowl eligibility for the second time in program history.

“With all respect to Navy, we did a lot of beating ourselves tonight. In the locker room after the game, (the players) have a pretty big chip on their shoulder about it,” said Poggi. “I would expect that we’ll be cleaner in what we do at Memphis.”