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Game No. 3: East Carolina 28, UAB 23 |
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Game
Slants
Saturday, September 24, 2011
By Denny O'Brien |
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Pirates prevail in spite of
themselves
By
Denny O'Brien
©2011 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
GREENVILLE — After opening
with consecutive challenges against members of the national Top 15, East
Carolina badly needed a competitive breather.
It’s a good thing the Pirates
faced Alabama-Birmingham Saturday instead of North Carolina, Houston, or
even Tulane. Considering the careless manner with which ECU handled the
ball, almost any other opponent would have departed Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium
with a win.
That’s generally what occurs
when you commit a school record seven turnovers. If a drop at the goal line
by UAB running back Pat Shed had not occurred, the outmanned Blazers likely
would have escaped Greenville with an upset victory.
Instead the Pirates squeaked
by 28-23, avoiding an 0-3 hole that would have put the young season on early
life support.
“I’m proud of my team for
being about to do that,” Pirates head coach McNeill said. “A lot of teams
would not be able to withstand that and have the competitive desire to do
that.
“The seven turnovers, I was
very disappointed in that. We talk about taking care of the ball. But to be
able to overcome that and to win the football game, I’ll be able to use that
to our advantage.”
That’s certainly one way of
looking at it. Perhaps the moral to this imperfect performance is how good
the Pirates can potentially be if they just tidy up some of the details.
Or if they demonstrate the
ability to focus for an entire 60 minutes. Needless to say that has been an
issue since the season opener against South Carolina when the Pirates
performed with brilliance in spurts, while seemingly losing focus during
others.
That certainly seemed to be
the case Saturday against UAB. The Pirates piled 542 yards of offense on a
UAB defense that showed very little resistance, though it was more than
capable of taking the freebies ECU was distributing.
Like quarterback Dominique
Davis’s first interception of the game, which fittingly occurred on his
first pass attempt. Instead of hitting Lance Lewis, who was alone over the
middle, Davis floated one into double coverage and into the hands of Blazers
defensive back Chase Daniel.
The fumble by Michael Dobson
as he was crossing the end zone is another example of ECU’s near-fatal
generosity. Instead of pushing the Pirates’ lead to a comfortable 35-17
margin, it gave the Blazers new life.
There were several other
examples — five to be exact — of ECU blunders that killed otherwise
promising drives. The net result was the Pirates sweating out an afternoon
on which they should have scored at least 50.
“We can fix them, and we
will,” Davis said with confidence. “We will be a lot more polished with our
turnovers. We’ll be fine. We had seven turnovers and still won the game. You
don’t really see that often.
"It’s exciting to see how
great we can be.”
There is no question that ECU
did provide a glimpse of the type of offense they could harness this season.
The Pirates amassed over five football fields of real estate and were never
forced to punt.
Davis, aside from three costly
misfires, was his normal accurate self, picking apart the Blazers defense
and distributing the ball to eight different receivers. It certainly helped
that his targets were able to find plenty of open space in the UAB
secondary.
In the process, the Pirates
also discovered offensive balance in the form of a running game capable of
moving the chains. Credit much of that to an offensive front that opened
plenty of holes for running back Reggie Bullock to rush for 169 yards on 24
carries.
The Pirates needed each one of
them to slip by the Blazers Saturday. Perhaps that would not have been the
case had ECU taken better care of the ball.
Considering the Pirates now
have 13 turnovers on the year, that’s obviously not an aspect of the game
they’ve mastered. And if they literally don’t get a better handle on that,
it’s hard to envision them making it to a bowl.
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09/25/2011 05:31:19 AM |
