The good, bad and ugly of 49ers' loss to North Carolina

MATT LACZKO | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Charlotte linebacker Shay Taylor directs teammates before a play during the 49ers' 20-3 loss to North Carolina Sept. 6 at Jerry Richardson Stadium. Charlotte fell to 0-2 under new coach Tim Albin.

It wasn’t the performance Charlotte coach Tim Albin envisioned for a record crowd of 19,233.

The 49ers managed a field goal in a 20-3 loss against North Carolina, but unless you’re shutting opponents out, three points aren’t going to win games. There were improvements from the season opener but a lot more to be made. There was a decent amount to take away from this game, but we’ll save you time and limit it to three.

Here they are:

The offense MUST get better 

It is fair to say after scoring just three points against North Carolina and 11 against Appalachian State in the opener that Charlotte’s offense is struggling. Charlotte was 0-for-3 in the red zone, had two red zone turnovers, three fumbles and 6-of-15 on third down — likely due to the average distance of just over 10 yards to go. 

“There’s no way I’m gonna get up here and blame anybody,” Albin said. “Ultimately it is my fault. We have different things tonight than we had last week… positives. But I think we had five or six drives over 15 plays, and we didn’t get any points on those drives. We have got to figure out how to get the ball in the endzone. … But we are not playing together, all 11 guys at the same time doing their job enough times to finish the drives.”

To add to their offensive woes, Charlotte had eight more rushing attempts than yards. That number is skewed based on two snaps where 49ers’ quarterback Conner Harrell had to fall on the football for losses, but still. Running backs Rod Gainey Jr., Henry Rutledge, C.J. Stokes and Cameren Smith combined for 38 yards. That is an average of 9.5 yards per tailback. That isn’t a winning recipe at any level of football unless your quarterback has 500 passing yards to combat the lack of rushing attack. 

Conner Harrell made improvements but has more to make

Harrell is still acclimating to running this 49ers’ offense. He took care of the ball, which is an improvement from Week 1. It could be play calling or a lack of comfort in pulling the ball and running, but there were a handful of occasions where it appeared Harrell made the wrong read and handed the ball off, but if he would have kept it could have gotten more yards. 

“To speak to his play or how he did, I’d need to watch the tape,” Albin said. “I thought there were some good things in there. He stood there [in the pocket]. I think the pass that he hit Sean [Brown] on, he stood in there [with the defense] barreling down on him. He changed his arm angle and threw a nice ball. Took a pretty good shot there but hopped right up. So, there’s good but we, again, had four drives over 10 plays and we didn’t get anything out of it. So, I am discouraged with that, but again, my glass is half full and we have to figure out how to get the thing in the end zone.”

Defense was a bright spot after first drive

It appeared it was going to be a long night for the defense yet again after North Carolina quarterback Gio Lopez hit Chris Culliver on a 51-yard opening drive touchdown. But Charlotte settled in after that and gave up just 13 points. 

“That third play game, they just ran by us,” Albin said. … We didn't tighten things up, maybe a little bit more man [concepts] this week. I’ve got to look at the numbers. But after that long play they had to work to get what they got. I know we had a couple turnovers and those types of things, but just as a defense, the way they stood together and kept fighting and really kept the score from getting out of hand.”

Charlotte linebacker Shay Taylor said the 49ers were quick to regroup after giving up the quick score.

“We knew they were going to come out and try to get back from last week,” he said. “Same thing happened when they played TCU, they had a big first drive but we hunkered down and tried to not let that affect us.”

Moving forward

Albin is staying with a glass half full mentality. It’s hard winning in college football, but to keep things in perspective, Albin struggled in his first season at Ohio before he firmly installed the culture he wanted. 

The 49ers will host Monmouth (2-0 and 18th in the country in FCS) next week. 

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