Grading Charlotte 49ers football: Defense, Purdie’s deep shots provide just enough

It was a tale of two halves for the Charlotte 49ers, and true freshman quarterback DeShawn Purdie’s heroics — combined with a grain of good luck — led the 49ers back from an early 10-point deficit to their first road victory of the season, beating Rice 21-20 in Houston.

Trailing by six with 1:45 to play, Purdie and the 49ers were tasked with going 77 yards with no timeouts. After tossing touchdowns to South Carolina transfer O’Mega Blake on consecutive drives early in the second half, Purdie went back to the speedster, floating a 66-yard shot that was juggled and eventually caught in the Owls’ red zone — setting up a lead-changing score in the final minute.

Following Hahsaun Wilson’s second touchdown of the season from a yard out, putting Charlotte on top by one, Rice had 47 seconds and needed just a field goal to win the game. Despite the Owls moving 53 yards in five plays, kicker Enock Gota’s 40-yard attempt hooked left, giving Charlotte its first American Athletic Conference victory and first road win of the season.

For the first time in 2024, all three phases clicked for the 49ers in the second half, and Biff Poggi’s team escaped Houston with a win.

“It can do a ton,” Poggi said of the victory. “It means that we’re never out of it. It means we’re 1-0 in the league, and it means that we can flush the whole preseason.”

Here’s how Charlotte (2-3, 1-0 AAC) graded out in its first FBS victory of the season.

49ers’ rushing offense

In the first half alone, which consisted of seven drives with Trexler Ivey at the helm, Charlotte totaled five first downs, punted four times, accumulated three times as many penalty yards (36) as rushing yards (12), averaged 2 yards per play and tossed an interception, all while totaling zero points.

Then halftime came, and a different team and quarterback took the field for the final 30 minutes.

With Purdie in the huddle to start the third quarter, Charlotte’s offense got a much-needed jolt, sparked by strong runs from tailbacks Cartevious Norton and Terron Kellman out of the break. It seemed Charlotte had found life in the rushing attack a week ago, totaling 137 yards against Indiana, but it struggled again for much of the night against the Owls with just 67 total yards — 1 yard more than its penalty total of 66.

And just when one tailback returned from injury, with Kellman seeing action for the first time since Week 2, Charlotte had another exit, with Norton suffering an upper body injury late in the third quarter.

Saturday night’s ground game wasn’t the follow-up many expected after success in Bloomington last weekend, but it was more about the downfield aerial attack for Mike Miller’s offense, with Rice sitting on the short routes and playing with a heavy box.

Grade: C-

49ers’ passing offense

Just two weeks ago against Gardner-Webb, Charlotte’s offense looked night-and-day different when Ivey replaced Purdie in the second half. Saturday night in Houston was the flip side, as Max Brown continues to be sidelined with injury.

“I promise you, man. It’s a ‘we’ thing. That’s my brother,” Purdie said of Ivey. “I’ve got his back, and he’s got mine.”

Replacing a struggling Ivey, who completed just 38% of his passes and threw an interception in the first half, Purdie made his presence known immediately, leading a five-play, 66-yard drive capped off with a 32-yard dime to Blake for Charlotte’s first points.

It was clear that Purdie was still hobbled from the knee and ankle sprain he was nursing last week, but the 6-foot-5 signal-caller had the deep ball on target all evening.

On the very next possession, Purdie lofted another to Blake for a 45-yard catch, giving Charlotte its first lead of the night. The picture-perfect long balls would continue, and Purdie looked to Blake again late in the action on a 66-yard shot, totaling five catches for 153 yards and two scores for Blake — a career day.

One of Purdie’s best throws of the night — a deep ball to Zay Myers, who reeled in the catch toe-dragging his left foot on Charlotte’s sideline with under four minutes to play — was ruled incomplete on the field, and despite a lengthy review, ultimately confirmed as an incomplete pass.

“That was in,” Purdie said of Myers’ acrobatic non-catch. “But it’s OK. We just had to stick to it, and we did. We prevailed.”

Purdie finished the game completing 10 of his 15 passes for 183 yards and two touchdowns, despite being under pressure on 30% of his dropbacks, marking a major bounceback performance from his three-turnover game against Gardner-Webb just two weeks prior.

Twenty-one points in the second half, led by the backup, resulting in a narrow one-point victory felt like déjà vu for the 49ers. And Charlotte’s defense bent just about as far as you can bend in the game’s final seconds.

But it didn’t break.

Grades: First half: F / Second half: A+

49ers’ rushing defense

Picking up where he left off from last season’s beatdown at Richardson Stadium, Rice tailback Dean Conners opened the action with a 48-yard run down Charlotte’s sideline, kick-starting yet another 100-yard game against the 49ers’ defense, finishing with 121 on 14 carries.

But despite the immediate and frequent success, Conners couldn’t find the end zone. Twenty points is the fewest Charlotte has surrendered all season, and Ryan Osborn’s defense held up early and often, forcing two turnovers on downs, holding Rice to two field goal attempts in the red zone, and keeping the Owls off the scoreboard when it mattered most.

After surrendering 200-plus on the ground against Indiana and North Carolina, two Power Four opponents, Rice carried 31 times for 209 yards on the game, averaging 6.7 yards per carry.

It wasn’t pretty, allowing 13 chunk plays for 331 of Rice’s 463 yards — adding to the trend of surrendering double-digit chunk plays in every game this season.

Poggi added: “Our close-field defense is pretty good. We’ve just got to tighten up the explosive plays.”

But with 2:24 to play, needing a stop to keep its comeback hopes alive, Charlotte’s run defense showed up with a three-and-out and gave Purdie another chance to win it.

Grade: C+

49ers’ passing defense

In another game where Charlotte’s front four failed to put any pressure on the quarterback, the 49ers’ secondary stepped up when it mattered, and Dontae Balfour played by far his best game of the season.

E.J. Warner, son of Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champion Kurt Warner, led the charge for the Owls’ offense, completing 21 of his 39 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns. Despite Osborn drawing up blitzes on 37% of Warner’s dropbacks, the 6-foot quarterback was under pressure on just seven times out of 43 chances.

Even with an average of 2.67 seconds to throw, Balfour, Al-Ma’hi Ali and Elijah Culp were blanketing Rice’s wideouts. Charlotte’s three defensive backs were targeted 15 times, allowing just five catches for 53 yards and recording 17 combined tackles, spearheaded by Balfour and Ali’s combined six pass breakups.

“I told him he balled today. He played how we expect him to play, and how he expects to play. That’s Dontae Balfour right there,” Ali said. “He showed who he was today. I told him I’m proud of him. That’s the standard.”

Balfour left the game on the final possession following a brutal blindside block and will need to be evaluated when Charlotte returns to the Queen City.

“That was a vicious hit, and it was the right call,” Poggi said of the late flag. “(Dontae’s injury) is a lower leg injury.”

Warner had his way in the middle of the field, though. When linebackers Reid Williford, Prince-Wallace Bemah and nickel corner C.J. Burton were in coverage, Warner completed 11 of his 12 passes, including two touchdowns with Bemah responsible, capped off by a lowlight of tackling for Charlotte’s defense as wideout Elijah Mojarro bounced off three 49ers defenders to score from 41 yards out.

After being burned by the deep ball frequently in the non-conference, the 49ers kept the Owls in front of them for much of the game, not allowing any completions of 20-plus air yards. But the 49ers must limit the chunk plays and wrap up when tackling as league play pushes on to continue the improvement.

Grade: C-

49ers’ special teams

Rice Stadium’s field was a slip-and-slide for Charlotte in the first half, causing multiple incompletions and missed opportunities for the 49ers. Charlotte’s lone missed opportunity on special teams came as Henry Rutledge slipped on a punt return with plenty of room to run early in the action.

“It was pretty slick and pretty spongy,” Poggi said of the field. “That impacted us a little bit in the first half, but we were able to do some things with our cleats and our taping at halftime, which helped us get better footing.”

Despite the offensive struggles in the first half, punter Michael O’Shaughnessy continued to flip the field for Charlotte, booting seven punts at an average of 45.9 yards, four of which traveled 50-plus yards and two landed inside the 20.

The 49ers allowed just 16 total return yards and didn’t allow any swing plays. It was another solid game from this group, which has been consistent all season.

Grade: B+

Overall

It wasn’t pretty, and the quarterback situation is still befuddling, but Charlotte’s got momentum heading into maybe the biggest home game in the program’s history with East Carolina (3-2, 1-0 AAC) coming to Richardson Stadium next weekend.

Rice (1-4, 0-2 AAC) was better than Charlotte in nearly every statistical category, but Purdie’s trio of deep shots, combined with Charlotte’s defense allowing just one touchdown on five red zone attempts and Gota’s last-second kick sailing left, gave the 49ers just enough to leave Houston with a win.

“We’re about to get right to it. We won — happy. Next day, flush it and we’re on to ECU,” said Ali.

Grade: B-