GREENVILLE — Navy’s siege at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium continued Saturday night with a 23-20 win in double overtime over East Carolina, making the Midshipmen 5-0 all-time on the road against the Pirates.
ECU’s Owen Daffer missed a tying 37-yard field goal attempt to the left to end the game.
Daniel Davies had given the visitors the lead by kicking a 36-yarder in the second overtime for his third field goal of the game. Davies had never had a field goal attempt before Saturday night. He was listed as holder, but won the kicking job in the competition that followed Navy’s 37-13 home loss to Memphis on Sept. 10.
Daffer hit a 54-yarder at Navy last year for a 38-35 ECU victory. He missed a 41-yarder in the season opener against N.C. State with five seconds left in a 21-20 loss to the Wolfpack this year.
The Pirates fell to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in the American Athletic Conference going into a league game at South Florida on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“Obviously not the ending we wanted,” said Pirates coach Mike Houston. “Knew the game would be like that. You give Navy two weeks to get ready. … Coach (Ken) Niumatalolo does just a phenomenal job. It was exactly what we expected.
“Proud of our kids. Thought we fought our tails off. We gave ourselves a chance to win.
“We’ve got to make plays. You look back in a ball game like that, there’s going to be a dozen plays that get magnified one way or the other. It is what it is. Obviously, disappointing. … I hate it for the kids right now.”
ECU’s leading rusher, Keaton Mitchell, went out early in the third quarter with an injury and took away the potential big play dimension he has provided.
The Pirates had played six halves without a turnover when Rahjai Harris lost a fumble at the ECU 25 with the score tied at 10 with 11:50 left in the game.
The visitors converted the opportunity for a 17-10 lead on a 7-yard run by Anton Hall with 9:15 to go.
ECU answered with a touchdown pass play covering 67 yards from Holton Ahlers to Isaiah Winstead with 8:00 remaining to tie the score at 17.
The Pirates drove from their 14 to the Navy 46 when Ahlers, scrambling to his left, was intercepted by Tyler Fletcher at the Navy 35 with 25 seconds remaining.
“I should have run and took as many yards as I could and gotten out of bounds,” Ahlers said. “That’s 100 percent on me. If I put us in field goal range, it gives us a chance to win it.
“I take full responsibility of that whole, entire game, honestly. I had a couple of plays I wish I could have took back.”
ECU had the ball first in the first overtime and Daffer hit a 26-yard field goal for a 20-17 Pirates lead. Davies kicked a tying 43-yarder.
Navy had the ball first in the second overtime and Davies made his try from 29 yards.
Daffer’s 19-yarder with 48 seconds left in the first quarter started the scoring. Davies hit from 37 yards with eight seconds left in the first half for a tie at 3 at intermission.
After a scoreless third quarter, ECU took a 10-3 lead on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Ahlers to Ryan Jones with 13:18 to go. Navy pulled even at 10 less than two minutes later when Vincent Terrell Jr. went 65-yards with a pass from Tai Lavatai.
The Pirates led 370-343 in total yards despite trailing by about 14 minutes in time of possession.
Ahlers completed 22 of 34 for 267 yards. Harris was ECU’s leading rusher with 15 carries for 78 yards.
Winstead finished with 11 catches for 143 yards.
The Midshipmen had 213 yards rushing with Maquel Haywood gaining 67 yards on 13 carries.
Give it to Navy, first of all, because they played better than the Pirates. Navy wasn’t the most talented team on the field. However, they were the best coached team. The Navy defense was coached up well, and the Pirate offensive play-calling on first down contributed to Navy’s success. Maybe I am on my own about this, but the Pirate offense seemed to be playing behind the sticks almost the entire game. Running RH into a pile of waiting Navy defenders on first down didn’t fool anyone, rather the Navy defense appeared to be waiting for it. Despite this, near the end of regulation, the Pirates had their chance. Ahler’s mistake extinguished an opportunity for the Pirates to “walk off” Navy back-to-back. Bottom line, Navy has our OC figured out about 90% of the time, and it shows.
Our defense continues to have tackling issues. Are the coaches teaching the “no wrap up” body block tackle? I get the issue with questionably applied targeting parameters muddling up the basic concepts of tackling, but several repeat offenders keep showing up on the field. I know the “D” was hung out to dry by the offense, so fatigue could have been an issue. Still, it happens routinely, every game. Also, I thought the secondary fell back into some bad habits with their coverage technique. Peeking into the backfield when you need to be laser-focused on a receiver is a very human error, particularly against a team like Navy.
Bottom line, the Pirates lost a game which should have been a “W”. The team played hard, never quitting. Too many mistakes, penalties, and a well-prepared Navy defense made the difference.
Ahlers decision making doesn’t match his physical gifts. At this stage as a 4 year starter he should be on top of the game, not struggling thru it each week.
While the Pirates defense wasn’t perfect, it certainly showed up, and was pretty damn good on balance, vs. a difficult to defend option scheme with very quick and intelligent Middies.
The individual killer plays were obvious, the turnover that yielded points for Navy, the interception late on a mental mistake, and the missed FG in OT, but generally the game IMO was lost in the offensive trenches, and (echoing another comment), the play calling didn’t exactly help matters.
Though Navy played outstandingly well, this was obviously a bad loss if ECU is who Coach thinks they are; hopefully it will make ECU more determined for next week, and beyond.