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Season in Review
Friday,
December 9, 2011
By Kevin Monroe |
Injuries, mistakes made for bumpy season
By
Kevin Monroe
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
The
East Carolina football team had a challenging 2011 season filled with
more bad times than good. After five straight postseason appearances,
the Pirates will watch this year’s bowl games from their living rooms.
After
playing one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation, ECU
dug itself a big whole, going 1-4 out of the gates. As the season moved
along, the Pirates showed glimpses of good football but found it hard to
consistently move the football and avoid turnovers.
Things looked promising even in some of the early losses, but injuries
and other issues cropped up all along that hampered the team's progress
and seemed to set the pace for a season that never took shape the way
fans hoped it would.
Against South Carolina in week one, East Carolina tallied more first
downs than the Gamecocks, had 130 more passing yards and 50 less penalty
yards. The key stat in that game was 5 ECU turnovers. The Pirates
actually had the led at halftime, but turned the ball over 3 straight
times to start the 3rd quarter, allowing USC to take a lead that it
would not relinquish. The Gamecocks were ranked 12th in the nation, yet
ECU played well enough to beat them had it avoided giveaways.
After
the USC game, East Carolina welcomed No. 13 Virginia Tech to Greenville.
This game was the ultimate defensive battle. The Pirates faced one of
the nation’s top running backs in David Wilson and, even though he had a
pretty good day running the ball, the Hokies were kept off the score
board for the most part. Virginia Tech’s defense, led by coordinator Bud
Foster, was equally up to the challenge and shut down the Pirates'
passing game. ECU lost by 7 after just missing a pass in the end zone
that would have tied the score.
The
UAB game is where fans started to realize this Pirate team was battling
some demons. East Carolina dominated the Blazers up and down the field,
tallying a season-best 542 yards on offense. That’s the good news; the
bad news is that the Pirates also set a team-high in turnovers with 7.
Inexplicably, ECU managed to win that game after giving UAB so many
opportunities.
The
North Carolina game was another one the Pirates lost control of because
of penalties and turnovers. East Carolina had 8 more first downs than
the Tar Heels and 200 more passing yards. But the Pirates got behind
early, couldn’t run the ball and were forced to throw the ball more than
desired (58 passing attempts.) North Carolina did a nice job running the
football behind Giovanni Bernard and the ECU defense was unable to get
off the field on some very crucial 3rd downs. A 226-yard rushing day by
the Heels combined with the Pirates' 4 turnovers proved to be too much
overcome.
Houston was just an old-fashioned butt whooping! The Cougars rushed for
215 yard and passed for 357 yards. Not only could the Pirates not stop
them, but on most downs they weren’t even lined up yet when Houston
snapped. East Carolina’s running game was completely inept with 30
rushes for 21 yards. The passing game was better, but because of the
lack of a run game it became predictable. This led to another 4-turnover
game.
Both
Memphis and Navy had football teams that just weren’t as talented as the
Pirates. Dominique Davis had his best two-game run of his career, going
70 for 84 with no interceptions and recording 718 yards passing, 4
passing TD’s and a couple of rushing scores. He set single-game and
two-game NCAA records for consecutive completions. He did not throw a
pick in either game. His play alone led the Pirates the road victories
over Memphis and Navy. The defense also stepped up in both of those
games, especially when Navy had a chance to win the game on its last
possession.
The
Tulane game got the Pirates back to a .500 record in front of the home
fans. There was solid QB play as Davis threw for 336 yards with only 1
interception and East Carolina had its 3rd straight game with at least
125 yards rushing. The defense was on its game as well, managing 2
takeaways and holding the Green wave to only 13 points.
The
last quarter of the season was tough. East Carolina had a 7-0 lead on
Southern Miss and was driving to go up 14-0 before throwing an
interception that was returned for six. The Golden Eagles then returned
a punt for 6 and returned a blocked punt for 6 more before the end of
the first quarter. It was the strangest few minutes of football I have
ever witnessed. ECU never recovered from that three-touchdown blitz and
went on to lose 48-28.
UTEP
was a long road trip against a team East Carolina really needed to beat.
That was the first loss of the season to a team not as good as the
Pirates. It was on the road — and all conference games are tough — but
that loss is the reason ECU isn't bowl eligible. The Miners didn’t do
anything special; they just outlasted the Pirates and did what they
needed to do to win.
The
Central Florida and Marshall games were great games for fans to watch.
The Pirates managed a really nice win at home over the Knights, but
suffered a heart-wrenching overtime loss on the road to the Herd. Both
games were winnable. The Pirates had 4 turnovers against Marshall,
creating a disadvantage for themselves in a conference game on the road
that virtually made the outcome inevitable. Marshall also had its back
to the wall and needed to win to get to a bowl game. The Herd pulled out
all the stops in order to get that victory.
The
future for the Pirates looks bright. The team is young and Coach Ruffin
McNeill is intent on continuing to grow the program by recruiting the
best of the best. Only 6 of the 22 starters from the Marshall game were
seniors. ECU will need to add some depth to the offensive line, running
back, and defensive back positions as well as replace the quarterback.
Next
year’s non-conference schedule features the likes of West Virginia,
North Carolina, and Navy to name a few. The road won’t be easy but the
view from here looks pretty good. Houston will be back to reality
without Case Keenum, Southern Miss will likely be hiring its second new
coach in five years, and Central Florida’s program is headed in the
wrong direction.
It's
time for East Carolina to start its rise back to the top of Conference
USA.
E-mail Kevin Monroe
PAGE UPDATED
01/03/12 02:39 AM.
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