NORFOLK— It’s hard to find fault with a win, especially after East Carolina equaled its victory total from a year ago with a 20-14 triumph at Old Dominion on Saturday night.
For the second week in a row the Pirates (2-0) gave themselves some issues to work on offensively. Four interceptions by Jake Garcia brought his pick total to seven in two games.
The well-traveled quarterback inspires confidence despite his turnovers and that’s a quality that ECU coach Mike Houston values.
“He’s decisive,” Houston said on the Pirate radio network. “He made some mistakes, yes. He’s got to cut down on the interceptions. This week was a little different. I don’t think these were as sloppy, but he doesn’t doubt himself.
“The kids believe in him. There’s just something about him. Everybody feels like that — me, the players, the coaches. I think he’s going to be really special in time.
“This was his third career start in a tough environment. He wasn’t perfect by any means but without him we don’t win the ball game.”
Running back Rahjai Harris also figured prominently with 26 carries for 131 yards that included scoring runs of 22 and 63 yards.
The longer jaunt came shortly after halftime. The first half ended with the Monarchs leading, 7-6, after the clock ran out with the Pirates on the ODU 6-yard line.
Harris went to the end zone on a 3rd-and-13 with 10:42 left in the third quarter to put the Pirates ahead to stay.
“Big shout out to the OL (offensive line) and big shout out to the game plan,” Harris said. “We went out there and did what we had to do. We had a couple of mistakes, a couple of errors that we’ve got to fix before App, but a victory is a victory.”
ECU returns home to take on Appalachian State (1-1) on Saturday at 4 p.m. (ESPNU).
Andrew Conrad, who missed the extra point after Harris’s 22-yard scoring run with 11:45 left in the first quarter, nailed second half field goals from 33 and 50 yards.
ECU’s defense erased most of the potential damage from four turnovers and limited the hosts to five conversions on 16 third downs.
Garcia completed 25 of 38 passes for 283 yards. Anthony Smith had five catches for 70 yards. Winston Wright Jr. had seven grabs for 66 yards and three grabs by Chase Sowell accounted for 47 yards.
Sophomore running back Javious Bond went out in the first half with an apparent knee injury and did not return.
ECU finished with a 466-287 lead in total yards.
“Our offensive line played very well tonight,” Houston said. “Obviously, Rahjai had a big night as a result of that.
“Our defense never flinched. It got hairy on that last drive, but, honestly, I knew they were going to run out of time. Our kids were just doing too good of a job of staying composed and staying calm.”
Time expired with the Monarchs at the ECU 35 as the Pirates extended their lead in the nonconference regional series to 5-0.
“The well-traveled quarterback inspires confidence despite his turnovers…”
Please; meaning no offense, this is demonstrably untrue. With a couple of minutes to go, and ECU at midfield, needing only one or two first downs to put the game away, three consecutive runs up the middle puts the lie to the above assertion, at least as far as the coaching staff is concerned, and it is somewhat understandable, given Garcia’s penchant for throwing picks.
The defense had a good game, but it would be dishonest not to admit that ODU shot themselves in the foot with crucial penalties, time after time, that were immensely helpful to ECU’s cause.
The Pirates are now heading into a significant three-game gauntlet in which it’s not likely that they’ll survive multiple interceptions in any of them. If Garcia starts the Ap game, then it must be while wearing a very short leash.
I don’t disagree with your point about JG. I thought surely Coach Baker would use Harris as a decoy out of the RPO, and allow Garcia to use his legs (with some strict instructions on ball security), putting maximum pressure on ODU while protecting the ball. That Coach Houston clamped down his own offense to the point that getting a first down was next to impossible speaks volumes.
Being the second game, Pirate Nation has a right to be concerned about the level of sloppiness displayed by the offense. Some OL can’t seem to line up properly, and the ball being snapped when no one is ready for it, are just a couple of examples. Clearly, the interceptions are the biggest problem. That must be cleaned up. The Pirate defense won’t be able to cover 3-4 big mistakes each game.
But, I’ll look at it with an optimistic eye, and point out that last year, we would not have gotten the win… so there’s reason to be hopeful.
7 interceptions and 2-0 points to weak opponents. With the exception of Temple , turnovers from here out means loss. Hope we can remedy turnover problems!
Do any of you experts watch college football??!! Fla St? GT!? Michigan!! Very fortunate to win their opener against Fresno. We are WAY better than last season on O. Happy with turnovers no, but I say it’s a pretty damn good team that can overcome that and win! Can it continue and have success, not likely but, I don’t believe it will. This guy at QB has played his second game in two years. Easy their melons. I think we have a bright future ahead!!! Go Pirates!!
Garcia for his career including the two games at ECU has thrown 11 TD’s and 11 Interceptions. This trend will need to stop if we want to continue to win. He is obviously physically talented with a strong arm but he has the bad habit to force the ball into overly tight spaces and double coverage situations. I think with more time he will get much better at decision making. The D has been outstanding so far and has bailed us out several times in the first two games when we gave the opponents a short field. Without question were are a far better team than last year with superior overall talent and speed, but with so many new faces and new schemes on offense the team and coaches are still trying to figure it all out.