Inside
Game Day Saturday,
September 22, 2012
By Al Myatt |
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No justice for Pirates
Al Myatt
©2012 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
CHAPEL HILL — In a Hollywood
script, East Carolina would have gotten a scoring pass from Shane Carden to
Justin Hardy in the closing seconds and the Pirates would have gone home
with a miraculous win at Kenan Stadium on Saturday.
The bad guys in light blue, serving their
season on NCAA postseason restriction, would have gotten what they deserved
and good would have triumphed.
Coach Ruffin McNeill would have been
carried off the field as the band played the fight song.
ECU was within striking distance at the
half, trailing 10-6 after usually-reliable North Carolina kicker Casey Barth
missed a 34-yard field goal. What some might have seen as a sign of a Tar
Heels demise was nothing more than a momentary aberration.
Stark reality soon set in on the sunny and
warm first day of fall. ECU absorbed a 27-6 setback as the second half
belonged to the Heels. Bryn Renner picked the Pirates apart with 27
completions on 43 attempts for 321 yards, two touchdowns and no
interceptions to stop a 2-game losing streak.
It was a contrast to McNeill's first trip
to Chapel Hill as Pirates coach in 2010 when the Heels broke the matchup
open in the second half with their running attack and won 42-17.
One silver lining Saturday is that ECU has
sufficient depth and talent on defense now to prevent a reoccurrence of that
kind of domination in the ground game.
"They did a pretty good job of stopping the
run, but obviously when they stopped the run we had to pick it up somewhere
else," said Heels back Giovani Bernard, who played for the first time since
a season-opening 62-0 win over Elon. "Bryn had an amazing game."
The difference in the two regional rivals
could probably be expressed in terms of what happens when a good Conference
USA team meets a middle of the pack Atlantic Coast Conference program over
the course of 60 minutes.
The Pirates didn't make as many mistakes as
in a 48-10 loss at No. 7 South Carolina two weeks ago when the Gamecocks
feasted on five turnovers but the Heels achieved separation by taking
advantage of ECU blunders.
North Carolina went up 17-6 on a touchdown
pass from Renner to Sean Tapley covering 62 yards with 10:45 left in the
third quarter. Tapley ran through a tackle attempt by Pirate freshman Josh
Hawkins en route to the end zone.
With the Pirates seeking an answer on their
ensuing series, Carden was sacked by Kevin Reddick and lost the handle at
the ECU 15. Kareem Martin recovered for the Heels and the deficit was soon
24-6, a considerable margin for a Pirate offense which was struggling to
regain the rhythm that had led to two short field goals by Warren Harvey in
the second quarter.
"I wish we had gotten some touchdowns there
at the beginning where we had to settle for field goals," McNeill said. "We
thought it was important to get started in the second half and we went three
and out on defense. ... From that point on we had some mishaps happen that
really set us back a little bit. Against a team like that, as talented as
they are, you can't have those setbacks."
Furr happy as a Pirate
Hunter Furr transferred from North Carolina
after Butch Davis was fired as coach prior to the 2011 season. He and Renner
used to room together. The junior running back had five carries for a net of
19 yards in his return to Kenan Stadium.
"It definitely was a unique experience
coming back," Furr said. "I'm still friends with some of the guys on the
team but to be honest it's great to be a Pirate. I wouldn't want to play for
anybody but Coach Ruffin McNeill."
Furr said the Pirates showed their
potential in the second quarter. ECU had 162 total yards at the half but
netted just 233 for the game. North Carolina recorded five of its seven
sacks in the third quarter.
"We need to start playing four quarters
like the second quarter," Furr said. " ... We have four backs who can all do
it. All four bring something different to the table. We have special
packages. Whether it's Ta Cooper on the swing or me pounding it or Reggie
(Bullock) making the jitter moves or (Michael) Dobson, he does it all, we
all do some greats things together and can do something unique."
McNeill reiterated his belief in "running
back by committee" in his postgame news conference.
Grove evaluates defense
Inside linebacker Jeremy Grove had six solo
tackles and three assists with two tackles for loss in the game. He was not
pleased with the outcome but knows the Pirates will be home next Saturday
night to put a 1-0 Conference USA record on the line against Texas-El Paso.
"Execution-wise, I don't think we did
well," he said after the Pirates fell to 2-2 overall. "They executed on the
plays we didn't execute. Overall, I felt like we swarmed to the ball. We've
got to get better at tackling. We missed a lot of tackles. ... We did great
on the run game. ... We need to work on coverage. D-line and whoever's
blitzing needs to work on getting pressure."
ECU responded to its only previous loss by
regrouping for
a cathartic 24-14 win at Southern
Miss.
"This game's behind us," Grove said. "We'll
watch film (Sunday), learn from it, fix our mistakes this week and get after
it. We've got a home game and we're real excited. It's a conference game so
it's really important."
E-mail Al Myatt.
PAGE UPDATED
09/23/12 02:51 AM.
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