NEW ORLEANS — Tulane is hot and East Carolina is not. The Green Wave got its third straight American Athletic Conference victory, 24-18, against the Pirates on Saturday at Yulman Stadium as ECU lost its fifth straight, all to league foes.
The Pirates were close but couldn’t close the deal on late-game possessions. A late opportunity was negated by a review of a reception by Trevon Brown on a 4th-and-9 from the ECU 35 that would have given the Pirates a first down inside the Tulane 40. It was determined by replay that Brown was out of bounds.
The game ended with the Pirates in possession at the Tulane 48. ECU had a false start penalty that resulted in a 10-second runoff on the clock that took off the remaining time and precluded a final Hail Mary.
“I thought we had made a great play over there on the sideline with Trevon,” said Pirates coach Scottie Montgomery. “They overturned it. The rest is history.”
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ECU pulled within 21-18 on a 31-yard scoring reception by Brown from Holton Ahlers with 11:54 to go. Brown also snared the 2-point conversion from the true freshman quarterback as Montgomery sought to be within a field goal of a tie score.
The Wave got a 33-yard field goal from Merek Glover with 7:35 left to lead 24-18.
Big pass plays fueled Tulane (5-5, 4-2 AAC), which moved within a win of bowl eligibility.
ECU will not reach the six-win plateau for a postseason trip after falling to 2-7 overall and 0-6 in league play. The Pirates host Connecticut (1-9, 0-6) on Saturday at 7 p.m. on Senior Night.
“My expectations are high for this club,” Montgomery said. “I set the expectations because I believe in our kids. It’s tough when you don’t get to play potentially in the postseason. It’s always tough when you don’t get to play in the postseason. What we’ve got to do is focus our guys on playing better next week and then playing better the next week and playing better the next week and getting wins in those weeks.
“That’s where the focus goes right now.”
ECU visits Cincinnati on Nov. 23 and travels to N.C. State on Dec. 1 for a noon kickoff.
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Montgomery had promised a bowl trip in 2018 after a 70-13 loss at Memphis ended the 2017 season.
“I apologize to the seniors,” said Ahlers, who was 21 for 67 for 360 yards with two TDs and one interception. “I would have loved to get them to a bowl game.”
Tulane had 20 pass breakups, an NCAA record.
ECU took a 3-0 lead on a 46-yard field goal by Jake Verity with 10:31 left in the first quarter.
Then the Green Wave began its aerial barrage. Darnell Mooney took a pass from Justin McMillan 86 yards to the end zone to put the hosts ahead to stay with 6:50 remaining in the opening period.
McMillan struck again with a toss to Terren Encalade that went for a 73-yard score and a 14-3 Wave lead with 5:13 to go in the half.
Ahlers connected with Brown for an 80-yard touchdown that drew ECU within 14-10 with 2:31 in the half.
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Tulane’s first possession of the second half covered 79 yards in one play on a pass from McMillan to Mooney with 12:19 left in the third quarter as the Wave went up, 21-10.
McMillan completed 12 of 28 for 372 yards with three TDs and no picks.
Tulane was averaging 221.7 yards per game rushing, 26th nationally. ECU yielded just 90 yards on 26 rushes.
“Our game plan was to stop the run,” said Pirate defensive back Tank Robinson. “We did that. They just hit three big plays on us.”
The Pirates’ touchdown possessions totaled just 29 seconds. The Wave had an edge in possession time of 33 minutes, 16 seconds to 26:22.
“We just didn’t top the plays that they made,” Montgomery said.
There were 26 punts in the game. Verity punted for the Pirates after John Young left the game after going down on a roughing the punter penalty in the second quarter. ECU had four possessions after Tulane had taken a 24-18 lead, including three series following Green Wave punts.
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Although the Pirates forced Tulane to punt 12 times, the Wave had a 535-450 lead in total yardage.
Tulane’s touchdowns accounted for 238 yards.
“Those were explosion plays,” Robinson said. “We’ve just got to play top down on them. It hurt us.”
ECU was penalized seven times for 69 yards. Tulane drew eight flags for 93 yards.
A holding call against the Pirates wiped out a 49-yard Verity field goal into the wind late in the first half.
“We played really hard on the road,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t quite get it done.”
What happened to Blake Proehl? Didn’t see much of him; only remember two passes thrown his way and only one reception.
This guy is too good to not be playling.
1-13 on the road! This is 100% unacceptable. It’s obvious , Coach Mo, can’t get it done. He has to go. ECU used to be #1 in attendance in the American. Now we look like UNC home games. No one is going to the games. We need a new coach fast. It’s a joke we don’t have an AD after 8 months. John Thompson era all over again. Cut bait and move on..