Inside
Game Day Saturday,
September 19, 2015
By Al Myatt |
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Reynolds, Navy too much
Al Myatt
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
ANNAPOLIS, MD
—
East Carolina seems to bring out the best in Navy. Maybe it's that old thing
with pirates and the Navy that ultimately led to Blackbeard's demise.
The factor that produced a
45-21 win for the Midshipmen at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium on Saturday was
more about Navy senior quarterback Keenen Reynolds and ECU's inability to
stop him or keep pace with his offensive production.
Reynolds ran 24 times for 142
yards with five touchdowns and when he wasn't keeping he was making the
split-second decisions with seasoned effectiveness that make an option
attack go.
Fullback Chris Swain was a
sledgehammer on the interior with 29 carries for 123 yards. Navy (2-0) ran
for 415 yards and Reynolds completed 4 of 7 passes for 41 more yards.
Navy's first ever American
Athletic Conference game was a study in contrasting offensive approaches.
The Pirates (1-2) managed 80
yards on the ground, which was better than the minus-13 ECU was limited to
in
a 31-24 loss at Florida last week.
Blake Kemp again triggered a
productive passing attack as he completed 36 of 49 for 325 yards with three
touchdowns and one interception. Kemp was sacked twice.
Where Navy was better was in
terms of its consistency. The Midshipmen scored on every first half
possession and led 28-7 before Kemp found Bryce Williams for a 17-yard score
at the close of the first half.
That cut the deficit to 28-14
and that was huge in keeping the Pirates in the game for a while longer.
With Navy due to receive the second half kickoff, the Pirates were looking
at a potentially-insurmountable situation.
"The drive right before half to
get us within 14 points was big," said ECU coach Ruffin McNeill. "We did a
good job of valuing possessions (offensively) in the first half. That was a
great connection between Kemp and Bryce."
But the play only postponed the
inevitable as AAC commissioner Mike Aresco and a crowd of 34,717 looked on.
The Pirates began to solve the
option attack to a degree defensively after intermission but the offense
would have had to be almost perfect in the final 30 minutes and it wasn't.
When the defense stopped Navy a
yard short at the ECU 26 on a fourth down on the first series of the second
half, the Pirates picked up a pair of first downs with a third- and
fourth-down conversion. But Kemp was stopped on a subsequent fourth down as
he tried to scramble through the pocket on a busted play.
The defense forced a Navy punt
but Kemp lost a fumble at the Navy 17. Reynolds was in the end zone with his
fourth touchdown four plays later for a 35-14 Navy lead just 50 seconds into
the fourth quarter.
"Frustrating," Kemp said. "We
had opportunities and we didn't capitalize."
The margin didn't swell to the
proportions of a 76-35 Navy win in Greenville in 2010 or
a 56-28 Midshipmen triumph over the
host Pirates in 2012. In between, Dominique Davis led ECU to a 38-35 win in
Annapolis in 2011.
Williams' 8-yard TD grab capped
a 93-yard drive and got ECU within 35-21 with 10:20 to go.
Reynolds escaped for a 17-yard
score with 3:45 remaining and Austin Grebe's 25-yard field goal for Navy
with 35 seconds left closed the scoring.
The Pirates didn't offer
excuses.
"They are a good team and they
executed better than we did," said ECU outside linebacker Montese Overton.
"We didn't come out and play like we were supposed to."
Overton had nine solo tackles
and three assists to lead the Pirates with a game-high 12 stops. Mike
linebacker Zeek Bigger had six solos and five assists for 11 total tackles.
Isaiah Jones had 10 catches for
130 yards to lead the receivers. Jimmy Williams had seven receptions for 55
yards and a score.
One of the good aspects of the
setback in the league opener for the Pirates is that it doesn't remove ECU
from controlling its fate as far as the AAC East Division title is
concerned. The Pirates still play every other division member and would have
the head-to-head tiebreaker in a one-league loss deadlock if they can win
the rest of their conference games.
That's looking a long way down
the road.
Virginia Tech comes to
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium next Saturday. ECU
won 28-21 in Blacksburg last
year with a different set of offensive leaders.
The Pirates have a chance to
make another big statement in the region before returning to AAC play at
Southern Methodist the following week.
"You have to learn something
each week," McNeill said. "We have no time to sit back and sulk or feel
sorry for ourselves. We have Virginia Tech coming into our home and they
will be ready to play. We have to match that."
E-mail Al Myatt.
PAGE UPDATED
09/20/15 02:30 PM.
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