Photo credit: Charlotte Athletics

Charlotte went toe-to-toe with Memphis at the Liberty Bowl and should have won. Unfortunately, the Niners defense gave up a go-ahead touchdown pass from Seth Heningan to Roc Taylor with 31 seconds remaining. As a whole, I thought Charlotte's defense had a really solid day, but several self-inflicted penalties extended opportunities for Memphis.

Quick Takeaways

This team is better than last years, I'm on board with that now, but Charlotte is still plagued by undisciplined penalties. Cleaning up the illegal procedures, lining up in the neutral zone/offsides, etc. will go a long way. Holding/PI's will happen, it's part of the game, but the others are 100% controllable.

QB position, albeit publicly via Biff Poggi's comments postgame, seems unsettled. I'm not at practice, so I'm not sure how Max Brown looks there compared to Purdie. I think we need to step back on Purdie just a tad as well, he was 5-14 on Saturday. My biggest question surrounding Purdie is his ability to connect on medium depth routes (10-19 yards), he's just 6/22 for 116 yards, a 27.3% completion percentage. As an offense you can't consistently expect to hit deep ball after deep ball. I think this is where our tight ends could really help Purdie as he continues to grow. Max Brown went 4/8 for 38 yards and an INT over the middle of the field, which stood no chance of making it to the intended target.

Memphis nullified our special teams due to their kicking game; I think Charlotte has to find a way offensively to get Henry Rutledge more touches. Screens, jet sweeps, something to put him in space and let him make a play.