PHILADELPHIA — For a few moments Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field, it looked as if East Carolina might do something about its winless status in American Athletic Conference games against Temple.
The Pirates won the coin toss, deferred their option and Corey Seargent intercepted on the Owls’ first possession. His 22-yard return gave ECU the ball at its 37-yard line.
“I was just trying to make a play for the defense and get the momentum to shift to our offense,” said Seargent, a senior who started at the field corner.
But that dive stalled after a pair of first downs and the opportunity was lost. John Young’s punt from the Temple 38 hit in the end zone for a touchback. The Owls scored nine plays later on a 24-yard pass from Anthony Russo to Sean Ryan with 7:55 left in the first quarter.
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Russo completed 21 of 25 passes for 254 yards with four touchdowns and one interception in a 49-6 Owls win.
The rout was the first time ECU has not scored a touchdown in an AAC game. The Pirates joined the league in 2014. ECU fell to 0-5 against the Owls in AAC play. Temple had a 470-196 advantage in total yardage, the first time ECU has not led that stat this season.
“Bad all-around football,” said Pirates coach Scottie Montgomery. “We didn’t do a good job from the start to the finish. We had a great week of preparation. We were as sharp as we’ve been. We got on the plane and we came up here and we didn’t do our jobs. … The truth of the game is they won the game in the trenches.
” … They outcoached us. They outplayed us. They won this football game. We’ve got to make sure we understand the importance of every single snap.”
Although East Carolina appears to have improved from a 3-9 overall record last year and a 2-6 mark in the AAC, Temple scored like it was 2017 when the Pirates allowed 45.1 points per game and were last in scoring defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Montgomery elected to go for a 4th-and-1 at the ECU 43 on the Pirates’ second possession, but true freshman quarterback Holton Ahlers was stopped for no gain. The Owls (3-3, 2-0 AAC) capitalized on the field position as Russo’s second TD pass covered seven yards to Branden Mack for a 14-0 lead with 1:25 left in the first quarter.
“On 4th-and-1, we had a play that we really love,” Montgomery said. “The backer walked down. It was exactly the look that we thought we were going to get and we didn’t convert a half-yard.”
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Isaiah Wright had a 32-yard punt return to set up Temple’s third score. Russo found Jager Gardner for 20 yards to the ECU 24. Russo hit Ryan for 12 yards. Ryquell Armstead had a 10-yard gain to the 2. Armstead scored on a 1-yard run.
The margin grew to 28-0 as Wright had a 59-yard punt return for a touchdown with 12:24 left in the half.
Montgomery said the Pirates didn’t have time to run the ball as the lead grew and pass protection was not as effective as the offense was forced to be one-dimensional.
ECU got on the board with Jake Verity’s 29-yard field goal with 6:30 remaining in the half. Russo connected with Wright for a 19-yard TD pass and the Owls led 35-3 at the break.
“I thought our defense came back in the second half and played hard,” Montgomery said. “Offensively, we’ve got some things that we’ve got to be able to fix on our interior. We’ve got to fix them really, really quickly. We had opportunities to go down the field with the ball. We had some guys open down the field, but we got the quarterback off the point. They couldn’t stay in the pocket today. We’ve got to get that corrected.”
Reid Herring completed 17 of 31 passes for 112 yards. ECU did not have a turnover.
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The Pirates (2-3, 0-2) turned to redshirt freshman Kingsley Ifedi at quarterback after Temple pushed the lead to 42-3 on a 31-yard scoring pass from Russo to Randle Jones.
Ifedi was not the answer on a lackluster day for the offense.
Ahlers had a 53-yard keeper that led to a 42-yard field goal by Verity with 12:19 to go. That reduced Temple’s lead to 42-6.
Freddie Booth-Lloyd, a 330-pounder, had a 1-yard touchdown run with 8:34 left as the Owls went ahead, 49-6. The 75-yard drive was directed by reserve quarterback Todd Centeio.
Not only have the Pirates never beaten the Owls in AAC play, ECU has never won the next game after losing to Temple in a league matchup.
“Temple beat us twice,” said former Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill in reference to a 31-13 setback at Connecticut after a 24-14 loss to the Owls at home in 2015.
The Pirates host Houston (4-1, 1-0) on Saturday at 7 p.m.
So how can ECU get things turned around against the Cougars, who took a 52-27 win over the Pirates in the Lone Star State in 2017?
“You leave your ego at the door,” said senior captain and offensive right tackle Garrett McGhin. “Tomorrow (Sunday), when we come in for practice, … you take this and you learn from it. You don’t come in and say this was just a fluke or anything like that. Realize what you did wrong. Realize what you did well, which wasn’t a lot, but you focus on everything and you move on from it. A mistake is only a mistake if you don’t learn from it. … We need to use this as a motivation every single day.”
Very discouraging result for the fans, especially the lack of effort and execution. The program took a step back in the wrong direction Saturday.
We lost to A & T. How can anyone really be surprised. Need a coach.
“Travesty” and “embarrassment” are the first two words out of the gate.
I appreciate Coach telling it like it is, though he probably has no other practical alternative. Just when his seat maybe, possibly started to cool down a degree or two, today it’s probably hotter than ever.
…problems all around for the Pirates, but one I hear little discussed is team speed. As an example, ECU is 96th (out of 129) in average kickoff return yardage.
Mercy.