Photo credit: Sam Roberts, Freeze Frame
Let’s start off with Head Coach Biff Poggi’s postgame press conference, where he was joined by LInebacker Nikhai Hill-Green.
Coach Poggi is clearly looking for answers on how to fix things, especially as it relates to the offensive struggles thus far into the season. Prior to the Navy game, I had some questions about Charlotte Football, so we may as well look to see how those played out.
The Offensive Line — Charlotte’s OL had their highest pass blocking grade per PFF since the opener versus SC State. They also posted their third highest run blocking grade, certainly a step in the right direction. Charlotte did lose Kendall Stanley for the year due to a dislocated ankle, he had started in place of Lucas Gramlick. Ja’khi Green also went down in this one, but he was stated to be healthy today by Poggi. This was a step in the right direction for Charlotte.
QB Shuffle — It was the Trexler Ivey show at Jerry Richardson Stadium, but it was an outing to forget. Ivey went 11-27 for just 142 yards and threw 2 interceptions. Ivey has to show better pocket awareness to avoid sacks, hopefully this is something that more reps will provide.
Self-inflicted pain — Turnovers, three of them. Two from the before mentioned interceptions, and also a fumble by Ivey that was recovered by Navy. Those are simply insurmountable for Charlotte at this time due to the struggling offense.
Explosives – Charlotte’s defense did all you can ask for, limiting Navy to just 14 points. Those points were off of methodical 14-play drives, but the results of 2 long plays Regardless of those two plays, the defense performed great as a whole and did all they could to position Charlotte for a win.
The crowd at Jerry Richardson Stadium was great, again, but at some point, that’ll fade when a program struggles to this magnitude. A loss to ECU this weekend and I’m not sure what to expect when FAU comes to town on Friday 10/27. If they can come away with a win in Greenville, coupled with a Friday night appearance on ESPN2, and Charlotte might put together another capacity crowd.
I’d like to give a shoutout again to the The Goldmine and the students, another great showing from them.