GREENVILLE — Homecoming turned into a heartbreaker for East Carolina on Saturday as a tying 48-yard field goal attempt by Andrew Conrad sailed wide with the breeze behind him with 34 seconds left.
The American Athletic Conference members had never played before in football.
ECU coach Mike Houston addressed what lies ahead after the Pirates slipped to 1-6 this season and 0-3 in the AAC.
“We did not play well enough,” said Houston on the Pirate radio network. “That’s obvious. We still had a chance to win in the end. We’ve got to stay together in the locker room. We’ve got to continue to improve. We were just not good enough today.” [PLAY POSTGAME AUDIO IN SEPARATE WINDOW]
The margin expanded to 10-0 as Charlotte quarterback Jalon Jones scored on a 1-yard keeper with 10:12 left in the third quarter.
Jones completed 11 of 18 for 144 yards. He was picked off by Julius Wood in the first half. Wood, a safety, was in on 10 tackles with five solo stops.
The visitors had a 323-127 lead in total yards.
ECU trailed 10-0 when a muffed punt was recovered by Kingston McKinstry at the Charlotte 10-yard line. Flinn found Shane Calhoun in the end zone for a 10-yard score with 13:14 left in the game.
The last possession for the Pirates started at their 29 with 2:29 to go.
Flinn had four completions for 25 yards before the boot by Conrad was long enough but wide of the uprights.
“I hate we couldn’t pull it together there at the very end,” Houston said. “We gave ourselves opportunities. Obviously, we have to convert them. We have to turn those opportunities into points.”
Houston said the Pirates need to remain focused in their shared purpose.
“I thought the kids really played hard in the second half and gave us a chance,” Houston said. “We did not play well in the first half, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
“We’re going to stay together. We’re going to come back (Sunday) and get back to work. They’re going to see a million plays that we left out there today.
“We’re going to work hard together to get it fixed.”
There isn’t any way to sugarcoat this situation. Charlotte’s defense is rated middle-of-the-pack in the AAC. The Pirate offense made the 49ers look like world beaters. Less than 130 yards of offense. To me, the sorry signature of the season to date came when quarterback Alex Flinn, the most experienced player in the DK system, took a sack at crunch time when any rookie qb should know better. He cost the team some valuable yardage already gained, and a timeout. Did he lose the game for the Pirates, of course not. Hell, he at least through a touchdown that gave the Pirates a chance to get even, or even win. Two missed field goals were enough to provide a win.
Early in the contest, the Pirates turned the 49ers over and began what should have been a short drive to the end zone. Instead, the offense looked foolish, and the kicking game provided the exclamation point by missing the chip shot field goal.
The defense played well enough, but you can’t keep giving up the edge for 6 -8 yard chunks. Also had some busted coverages, but no back breakers.
Seven games played and the Pirates are 1-6. After this latest example of non-performance by the offense, I will be pleasantly surprised if the Pirates win again. Coaches… keep telling us how good the practices have been. Maybe you should rethink your concepts, because the “good practices” aren’t showing up in the games.
Have the snubs of the power conferences, the transfer portal, and NIL handed ECU a mountain too steep to climb? Are the great days of past football glory now just precious memories?
It’s not just that the offense is bad, it’s that it hasn’t shown an iota of improvement since the beginning of the season. At least in the dark days of the Coach Mo era, Pirate Nation had the reasonable hope of a turnaround with a new administration; what’s the plan now? When this site features new recruits who accept ECU’s offer over middling FCS programs, that doesn’t sound hopeful. I will give credit to a respectable Pirates defense, and sympathy, too.
Bottom line is the program has taken a big step back. Yes we all know the amount of talent that left the program after last year but nobody thought ECU would be looking at a sub 3 win season and 1-11 very likely looking at the remainder of the schedule. The offense is at the bottom of all the FBS schools and totally inept at this point. Hopefully the fans will see some improvement the remainder of the year, but yesterday’s homecoming game was painful and demoralizing to watch, and because of this there was very little enthusiasm and hopefulness in the home crowd yesterday.
Same coaches who had us bowl eligible for past 2 years. Can’t recruit or retain good players without nil$$$. New reality, pony up or shut up!!
No doubt, the NIL $$ makes a difference among the very elite and elite recruits, and probably at the “very good” level, also, as the big programs try to gobble up the obvious talent.
What’s happening this year is different from the standpoint of the coaching not accepting the level of competence shown, and rather than coaching a concept that can be somewhat successful now, they continue down the same path of outright failure.
If the team’s effort in each game results in demonstrated improvement, mistakes can be understood, given all of the “new” pieces of this year’s puzzle. While the defense is far from perfect, an overall level of improvement is identifiable. Not so for the offense. Indeed, Saturday’s effort by the offense looked more like an early fall scrimmage not equal to the effort against Michigan. The O-line is lost. The heir-apparent QB can’t bring his “great” practices to the game (no doubt, the o-line problems contribute). The sub QB is more decisive, but accident prone. The Pirates DO NOT have anything resembling a running game. I think we have some good backs who could get us some yards, but not in the RPO. The Pirate O-line CAN’T BLOCK for it consistently. At this point, that’s not NIL. The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing while always expecting a different outcome. I don’t blame the players at this point. I believe they’re trying as hard as they can. This is on the coaches. Put a simple, straightforward blocking scheme in place, and run North and South. Neither QB will ever settle down, nor will the passing game expand, if every defense can disregard the run.
We lost an olinemen to Oregon and auburn, both are starting. Lost a dliinemen to TCU. Nah nil has nothing to do with our situation!
What’s Rice’s and Charlotte’s NIL situation? I rest my case; sometimes I wonder if Coach is paying folks to keep whining about the NIL, to deflect the heat from exactly where it belongs.
I know we have a great coach, he proved himself at JMU. The transfer portal is a killer to programs like EC. You can’t blame the players, they have a good season and get a call from a larger school. The transfer portal is doing to college football what the NBA has done to college basketball, you don’t know who the players are anymore. One and gone. My only complaint is the two QB system, I have never seen this work. My blood will always be purple, but this is tough year.