By
Denny O'Brien
©2012 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
CHAPEL HILL — Four games
should provide enough time to establish an offensive identity. But after
East Carolina’s humbling 27-6 loss to North Carolina, the Pirates still
find themselves struggling to find one.
If you had to assign ECU
an offensive label at this stage of the season, disorganized and
inconsistent are the only options that fit.
For the second consecutive
week, the Pirates failed to crack 250 yards of total offense and
struggled to find any consistent rhythm. Outside of two scoring drives
that concluded with frustrating short field goals, ECU was largely out
of sorts against a young North Carolina defense.
That was especially true
following intermission when the Tar Heels blitzed Pirates quarterback
Shane Carden from the moment they exited the locker room. ECU looked
completely unprepared and never recovered from the barrage of pressure
that fueled 14 quick points and put the game away.
“(Carden) was under
duress,” Pirates Coach Ruffin McNeill said after the game. “I’ll watch
the film tomorrow and be able to tell, but they did a good job being
able to pressure with four and defend. If you can do that against any
offense and have seven in coverage, then you’re going to be good.
"I saw them blitz and get
to us a little, so we’ll watch it tomorrow and see. Protection and
decisions, maybe we could have gotten rid of the ball a little quicker,
we don’t know. I’ll watch the film.”
Perhaps part of the issue
with ECU’s offense is that film is an apparent prerequisite to any
improvement. Any noticeable adjustments seem to occur during practice,
not on the fly in the middle of games.
The apparent inability to
formulate any about-face to in-game offensive strategy puts the Pirates’
personnel at a supreme disadvantage. On Saturday, it kept Carden firmly
planted in the turf for much of the day.
“We couldn’t finish
drives,” said Carden, who threw for 124 yards and suffered seven sacks.
“We started out the second quarter and we did well. We were driving the
ball well. We just couldn’t finish those drives. We do that, and we have
two touchdowns.
"I think we kind of let
them get to us. They made some big plays, but we’ve got to answer with
that.”
So do the coaches who are
responsible for putting Carden and his teammates in situations conducive
to success.
That didn’t seem to be the
case for most of the second half, when Carden ran the equivalent of
three miles avoiding the relentless Tar Heels rush. Those occasions when
he hurled the ball desperately into the seats marked some of the
Pirates’ more successful offensive efforts of the second half.
While some of the Pirates’
misfortune can certainly be traced to Carden’s overall inexperience,
it’s tough to pinpoint any specific adjustments intended to provide him
with needed assistance.
No designed dump offs. No
max protection formations. No presence of the shovel pass that has
brought some success this season.
Just a defenseless
quarterback with little time to properly run through progressions.
The 2010 arrival of the
vaunted Air Raid attack promised to usher in a record-setting era of
offensive football for ECU. It was met with enthusiasm from a fan base
that was growing somewhat unsatisfied with 21-17 wins.
For most of its inaugural
campaign, it did as designed, piling up yardage and points at an
unprecedented rate. But somewhere along the way, the ECU offense took a
U-turn, which to some degree can be attributed to inexperienced
personnel.
Offensive coordinator
Lincoln Riley’s first offense included an NFL quarterback and receiver,
and other established players who spent time in professional camps. Some
level of decline can be expected with the loss of such key personnel.
But three years in with
hardly any coaching attrition, the ECU offense should have the look of a
well-oiled operation. Presently it has the resemblance of anything but.