Charlotte 49ers’ slim bowl hopes all but dashed in listless loss to Florida Atlantic

Whether it was the full moon or the ambiance of Halloween weekend, Charlotte’s scariest performance of the season came at its biggest spot — spiraling back to the turf of Richardson Stadium, where Florida Atlantic dismantled Biff Poggi’s 49ers, winning 38-16 and pushing Charlotte to the brink of bowl-elimination.

Florida Atlantic (4-4, 3-1 AAC) moved the ball for 347 yards of total offense on Friday, and wideout LaJohntay Wester reeled in a career-best 149 yards and two touchdowns, unmasking a Charlotte defense that had been excellent for two straight weeks.

Unlike the Week 3 loss to Georgia State, Poggi’s disappointment outweighed the anger — putting the blowout loss on the defense.

“It was a disappointing night. We thought we were going to play really well, especially after last week’s win. The only statistic that matters is 38 to 16. Defensively, we were really disappointed. We just made a lot of mistakes.”

To add insult to injury, Charlotte lost quarterbacks Jalon Jones and Trexler Ivey in the loss. Poggi wouldn’t elaborate on either injury with the media, but told ESPN’s 730 the Game that both quarterbacks could “miss time.”

“Injuries are piling up. I prefer not to say, right now. I need to meet with our medical staff,” Poggi said. “Trexler’s was significant enough that he wasn’t able to get back in. And Jalon took a hit where his leg just came out from under him.”

Charlotte played four quarterbacks in the loss, with the season debuts for Oklahoma transfer Micah Bowens and Dom Shoffner coming once the game was well out of reach.

What went wrong

Friday night’s game wasn’t unique in the score, which marks Charlotte’s fifth consecutive loss to the Owls. What was interesting were the statistics, which Poggi stated are “for losers” after reviewing the box score.

Charlotte won the turnover battle, possessed the ball for nearly twice as long as the Owls, ran 30 more plays than the Owls and scored on each trip to the red zone. Florida Atlantic outgained Charlotte by just 22 yards and allowed six conversions on Charlotte’s eight fourth-down attempts.

So, what went wrong? Poggi elaborated following the loss.

“I think what went wrong is that we just aren’t disciplined yet as a football team. We show flashes of really good things, and then we very quickly revert back to some undisciplined behaviors. You have to want to eliminate those mistakes. The extracurricular stuff — that’s just inexcusable. How do we fix it? Honestly, we’re trying everything. But we’ve got to keep trying.”

After committing nine penalties for 90 yards against East Carolina, Poggi jokingly said that “torture” was his method for fixing the self-inflicted errors. Charlotte outdid their season-high of nine penalties Friday night, totaling 12 flags for 104 yards, including multiple personal foul penalties, highlighted by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Eyabi Okie-Anoma following the conclusion of the first half.

Humbling defense

After holding both Navy and ECU scoreless in the first half in consecutive weeks, Florida Atlantic wasted no time scoring the game’s first two touchdowns on drives of 75 and 59 yards in the first quarter.

Everything was working for the Owls’ offense, which needed just six plays or less to find the end zone on four of five total touchdown drives. The lone extended drive was a back-breaker late in the first half, traveling 94 yards on 10 plays with quarterback Daniel Richardson finding Wester, his favorite target, for a 26-yard score to give the Owls a commanding 15-point lead into the break.

Richardson picked Ryan Osborn’s defense apart through three quarters, completing 18 of his 25 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns. Richardson did toss an interception for the sixth straight game in the fourth quarter, when CJ Burton reeled in his first interception as a 49er off of a tip-drill.

Osborn, Charlotte’s defensive coordinator, put the loss on himself following the game.

“I didn’t do a good enough job preparing these guys. They weren’t ready to play, and that falls on me. You’ve seen through the first seven games, for the most part, our guys have played really hard and given great effort. The execution falls on me. They had some explosive receivers that we talked about earlier in the week, and I didn’t do a good enough job putting them in position to execute. It falls on me. I’ll watch the tape and get back to work.”

Charlotte was without its best corner, Dontae Balfour, as well as safety Wayne Jones. Wester and the Owls’ offense took advantage of multiple one-on-one matchups with Al-Ma’hi Ali and Maguire Neal in coverage. Poggi stated that the team dealt with the flu throughout the week, leading to multiple defenders missing the contest.

The sixth loss of the season, and the third consecutive at home, brought out the boo-birds from 10,857 in attendance, leaving a half-empty Richardson Stadium as the clock dwindled. Charlotte failed to finish drives, settling for three Kyle Cunanan field goals, connecting from 36 on the game’s opening possession and 44 yards out on two separate occasions — tying a school record for the most field goals in a game.

But it was the indecisiveness at quarterback that cost Charlotte.

Coaching woes

Charlotte was bailed out by a missed 48-yard field goal at ECU, allowing multiple crucial coaching flubs to slide under the rug with a victory over an in-state rival shining through. But the indecisiveness at quarterback and troublesome middle eight of Friday night’s game proved fatal.

After naming Jones the starter following his best performance as a 49er against ECU, Charlotte reverted to the two-quarterback system Friday night. On the sixth play of the game, Jones sustained a brutal hit from Jaylen Wester, who led with the crown of his helmet to Jones’ stomach and was ejected from the game following a targeting penalty. Jones would return on the ensuing drive, following a trip to the medical tent.

Offensive coordinator Mike Miller spoke about the quarterback rotation following the game.

“Jalon got knicked early in the game — that was a big part of it. He was evaluated at halftime and still needed time to see if he could (return),” Miller said. “We’ve had them both ready to play, and they’re both competitors.”

Trailing 21-6 before the break, Poggi inserted Ivey into the lineup to lead a two-minute drill. The drive consisted of two 4-yard passes and a throwaway on a designed roll-out, sandwiched between two delay-of-game penalties to start and end the possession — leading to the conclusion of the first half. The Owls wasted just 1:14 of game clock on the first drive of the second half, utilizing the additional penalty yardage from Okie-Anoma’s halftime penalty and moving 57 yards in just three plays to put the game out of reach.

Poggi elected not to address his team following the game, which is standard for the 63-year-old coach.

“The reason (for not addressing) is, they’re sorting their own emotions and I’m sorting through mine. I want to give them some room, space and respect. I need to watch the film. We’ll use this as a learning situation. What I really want to see the kids personally do is to take control of their emotions better during a game. These are life lessons that you have to try to learn. Things aren’t always going to go well, and you can’t just always fly off the handle. We’re going to keep working on it.”

Suspensions

On Saturday, the 49ers announced that an undisclosed number of unnamed players were suspended following the FAU game.

”I am extremely disappointed with our comportment as a football team against FAU,” Poggi said. “I have made the decision to immediately suspend various players for our game against Tulsa.”

A statement from the school said the players will be suspended for one game and will not travel with the team to Tulsa for Saturday’s game.