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Game
Day Slants
Saturday, October 12, 2013
By Denny O'Brien |
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The Big Easy too difficult for
Pirates
By
Denny O'Brien
©2013 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
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View box score and statistics on ecupirates.com
Read game recap on ecupirates.com
Read game recap on tulanegreenwave.com
NEW ORLEANS – It’s almost a
rite of passage for East Carolina to lose a game it is expected to win.
Upstart Tulane added to that painful legacy Saturday with a heart-stomping
36-33 triple overtime win.
Perhaps it will prove a needed
wake-up call for a team that has seemingly dozed through periods of its last
two games after a convincing 55-31 victory over North Carolina two weeks
ago.
The Pirates haven’t been
nearly as proficient inside the red zone, and the mistakes have exceeded
their margin for error. It was enough Saturday to make you wonder if ECU had
become overconfident with a schedule that is far from intimidating.
Despite being a firm favorite
at Tulane, the Pirates spent more than three quarters looking more the part
of the underdog. The Green Wave was more aggressive and dictated the tempo
with a blitzing defense that kept the Pirates on their heels.
That was especially the case
on third down and in the red zone.
ECU converted only 4 of its 16
third down opportunities and also committed a series of miscues inside the
20-yard line. Too often, it settled for field goals after having first and
goal. Then there was that 14-point swing off a 99-yard pick six.
“They were showing us some
different looks,” East Carolina quarterback Shane Carden said about the
Tulane defense. “I think we were just kind of worried too much about what
they were showing us, and not just lining up and playing football.
“We were making corrections on
the sideline, but to a point you’ve kind of got to just line up and play. I
think we were letting what they were doing affect us too much.”
That’s an understatement.
Until Carden finally found a
groove in the fourth quarter, he often looked uncertain, especially the
deeper the Pirates drove into Green Wave territory. The constant threat of
blitzes and the mixing of coverage kept the Pirates’ otherwise prolific QB
guessing.
Much of that can be attributed
Tulane’s defensive philosophy, one that has proven to give ECU fits. The
Green Wave brought pressure on nearly every play, while its secondary
essentially glued itself to Pirates receivers at the line of scrimmage.
The result was four sacks and
six tackles for losses in the first half alone.
Credit Tulane for much of the
ECU offense’s early venture into a near-comatose state. The Green Wave
executed its defensive game plan with a degree of mastery that would make
Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster tip his hat.
But the fact that the offense
regained consciousness late and essentially did anything it wanted moving
forward suggests that perhaps it was sleepwalking for much of the game.
Given the name on the
opponent’s jersey, the empty cavern in which the Pirates were playing and
the high-fives they’ve been getting since embarrassing UNC-Chapel Hill, to
some degree you can understand why.
The sobering lesson, however,
is that this team doesn’t have enough of a talent advantage to just go
through the motions. It’s a lesson the ECU program has been taught many
times before.
“It was a tough loss,” Pirates
Coach Ruffin McNeill said. “The kids are taking it pretty hard. I was proud
of the fact that we were down by ten and battled back.
"We had a chance to win at the
end, but you have to make those plays.”
East Carolina didn’t make
nearly enough of them during the first three quarters.
In a twisted sort of way,
maybe the heartbreak it suffered in New Orleans will motivate ECU to
approach each opponent as if it were a heated rival.
View box score and statistics on ecupirates.com
Read game recap on ecupirates.com
Read game recap on tulanegreenwave.com
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10/12/2013 11:18:29 PM |
