Stakes will be high in Cincinnati

By Brian Bailey
©2014 Bonesville.net
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It’s time for the East Carolina Pirates to crank it up again.

It’s time for that high flying offense to take flight.

It’s time for that defense to create turnovers and give the offense a short field.

It’s time to finish strong. With four games to go, despite the loss to Temple, there is plenty to play for.

It all starts on Thursday night in Cincinnati. It certainly won’t be easy, but it’s time.

I don’t think we’ve seen the best of this ECU football team as of yet. Maybe the pressure to win out was too much. Maybe the outside noise was too loud.

The loss at Temple hurt everyone, especially the head Pirate.

“It hurt me in three ways. It hurt me as a former student, a former player and as a coach,” said coach Ruffin McNeill. “It hurt us all. That’s life, and now we have to get back at it and turn it around.”

Fumbles and penalties doomed the Pirate cause in Philadelphia. They were points of emphasis during the open week.

Ruff and Company invited referees out to work several practices as the team looks to correct those mistakes.

The Pirates are the third most penalized team in the nation. That’s certainly not indicative of what McNeill wants in his program.

“With the eighth official, what they watch for are holds,” he explained at his weekly news conference on Monday [Replay news conference audio...]. “If the defender’s body gets outside of the body’s framework, that’s what they’re calling holding. How do you prevent that? Move your feet a little better and lower your pad level.”

The amount of laundry on the field against the Pirates has really irked McNeill over the last month.

“Last week, I talked to Jim Mora at UCLA and Art (Briles) at Baylor, and they’ve been having a lot of holding calls against their teams as well,” said McNeill. “Penalties have almost quadrupled since 2013, so it’s not just here in Greenville. I’m not sure if it’s the high-paced teams or what. We’re making sure the kids are getting more repetitions because the more the get, the better they’re getting and that’s the approach we’ve taken.”

The penalties have also been frustrating for quarterback Shane Carden.

“We just have to really stress the fundamentals,” said Carden. “We have worked very hard to try and get back to where we aren’t penalized.”

Four AAC teams enter play in this second week of November with just one conference loss. It may not be a national semifinal, but this ECU-Cincinnati game could be an elimination game for the league. Central Florida and Memphis are also in the one-loss column.

“This is a big game,” said McNeill. “Before we get to the game, we have to make sure we have a great week of practice. Cincinnati is tough, athletic and well coached. Just like the other games we’ve played, this is a very competitive league and we knew that before we came in. We’re looking forward to that challenge.”

That challenge will be a little less stressful if the Pirates can hold onto the football and stay away from the yellow hankies.

That, of course, will be easier said than done on the road. Add in the colder weather and the challenge intensifies.

“The last time we had a really cold week of practice was the week heading into the Military Bowl in Washington, D.C.,” said McNeill. “We haven’t pulled out cold gear in a long time. We’re prepared for that. The wind and rain surprised us a little bit, but the other team played in the same weather. With the change of time, we’ve been able to get night practices in, so we’re looking forward to that challenge.”

BB

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