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Pirates' season arrives at crossroads

By Brett Friedlander
©2015 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.

No game last season sticks in the craw of East Carolina fans more than the Senior Night loss to Central Florida in which the Pirates pried defeat from the jaws of victory by allowing the Knights to score on a 51-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired.

But that wasn’t the most damaging loss of 2014.

Not by a long shot.

That distinction goes to the sloppy, self-inflicted 20-10 setback to Temple on a cold, wet November afternoon in Philadelphia – a game ECU fumbled away by coughing the ball up five times to negate a 428-135 advantage in total yardage.

In retrospect, it was the difference between a truly great season and a just plain good one.

It’s also a big reason why so many of the Pirates who were there that day are so amped up about getting another shot at the Owls Thursday night at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

“I can’t wait,” senior linebacker Zeek Bigger said only moments after last Saturday’s workmanlike 30-17 Homecoming win against Tulsa. “I just can’t wait.”

The nationally-televised rematch is a virtual mirror image of last year’s AAC East showdown, in which ECU was riding high, ranked 21st in the nation on the strength of a five-game winning streak. This time the roles are reversed with 22nd-rated Temple coming in as the hot team with five straight victories.

Revenge, however, is hardly the only – or most important – reason Thursday’s game is so important to the Pirates. As was the case was a year ago, the battle with the Owls represents a distinct seasonal crossroads for coach Ruffin McNeill’s team.

Though it’s still far too early for it to be a make-or-break proposition, the outcome will determine the course ECU takes for the remainder of the season.

Win and the Pirates will have the inside track on a division title no one would have dared predict after quarterback Kurt Benkert went down with his season-ending knee injury a week before the season opener. Lose and focus shifts to the more modest goal of winning at least six games and earning the best bowl trip possible.

Of course, you won’t hear McNeill or anyone on his staff has mentioning such things as they work their way through the short week of preparation for Temple.

“Not one second. Not one syllable. Not one word,” the ECU coach said. “The reason we need it is because it's the next game. That's the motivation. Our thought process isn't going to change. We know we have a great opponent in Temple. They're a great team. They're not winning by luck. It's execution.

“I talk about getting better. Let's play our best game our next game. Temple has a great team and proposes a great opportunity, but a challenge for us.”

The Pirates answered one challenge last week when their defense rose to the occasion by shutting out for the first three quarters a Tulsa team that came into the game ranked seventh nationally in total offense.

Not only did coordinator Rick Smith’s unit take care of the business of stopping the Golden Hurricane, it also picked up an out-of-sync offense by scoring one touchdown on a school-record tying 100-yard interception return by cornerback Josh Hawkins while setting up another score with a fumble recovery deep in Tulsa territory.

This week, whether it’s James Summers or Blake Kemp getting the bulk of the work under center, it will be the offense’s turn to rise to the occasion against an Owls’ defense that allows only 14.7 points per game and held UCF to 134 total yards in a come-from-behind win last Saturday.

If nothing else, ECU should have plenty of motivation to fuel it after its 2014 disappointment in Philly.

Just not too much.

“We can’t look back on last year’s game because we aren’t last year’s team and they aren’t last year’s team,” Hawkins said. “We’re just going to worry about this team that we’re playing, ourselves and what we can accomplish now.”

The last thing the Pirates want to do is lose sight of what’s still there for the taking by spending too much time staring wistfully in the rearview mirror.

Not that a little revenge wouldn’t be sweet.

Contact Brett Friedlander

PAGE UPDATED 10/21/15 01:42 PM.

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