A 55-24 American Athletic Conference loss at Charlotte on Saturday, Oct. 5, would be a lot easier to forget if East Carolina had a game this week.
The severity of the setback, an open date and the daunting prospect of a matchup at unbeaten Army make this week a tough time to be a Pirate.
This wasn’t how the oddsmakers or Pirate Nation saw things unfolding in the Queen City.
The betting line had ECU as an 8.5-point favorite. The ECU fan saw the matchup as an opportunity to exact revenge for a 10-7 loss to the 49ers in Greenville last season in the first meeting between the programs.
Charlotte is a relative newcomer to major college football. This is its second season in the AAC after moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2015.
ECU (3-3, 1-1 AAC) had been competitive in its two previous losses, holding leads of 16-0 and 17-0 against Appalachian State and Liberty.
Charlotte (3-3, 2-0) had been mediocre at best, starting the season with a 30-7 loss at home to James Madison and following that up with a 38-20 road defeat to North Carolina.
The 49ers managed a 27-26 win over visiting Gardner-Webb before getting pummeled, 52-14, at Indiana. Charlotte won its AAC opener at Rice, 21-20, after trailing 10-0 at the half.
True freshman quarterback Deshawn Purdie sparked the comeback against the Owls with a pair of touchdown passes to O’Mega Blake. The 49ers had played junior quarterback Trexler Ivey in the first half at Rice.
Charlotte established am early lead against the Pirates and remained on top. Iowa State transfer Cartevious Norton ran 11 yards for a 49er touchdown and Purdie had a 1-yard keeper for a score that provided a 14-0 lead with 3:38 left in the first quarter.
The crowd of 17,102 at Jerry Richardson Stadium, which has a listed capacity of 15,314, was into it in a manner comparable to the impetus a throng of 51,082 at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in 2014 provided in a 70-41 win over UNC.
The most disturbing number was Charlotte’s 311 rushing yards as all six 49er touchdowns were produced by the run game.
ECU coach Mike Houston accepted accountability in the aftermath.
“Not the way we want to play,” said the Pirates coach. “I apologize to our fans, because that’s not what I expected us to do. That’s not the standard for us. Put it on me. You can put it on our coaching staff, whoever. But I’m the head football coach and I’m responsible for our offense and that’s not what we want it to be.”
There were no indications that the Pirates’ most one-sided defeat of the season by far was at hand.
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“Our kids were ready to go,” Houston said. “We were excited about this matchup. Charlotte came out, drove down to score. We came back and had a chance to go right back at it. And we did make a couple of plays. … But still, I thought our guys were ready to go,
“Obviously, Charlotte did a very, very good job with their offensive attack, their game plan today. It’s been a long time since somebody’s done that to us. And so we’ve got to take a really good look at this tape.”
The last team to score as many as 55 points on the Pirates was Cincinnati in 2020.
“We knew that we were facing a very good offensive line,” Houston said. “They invested a lot in that front and they’re very talented. Still, we’ve faced good offensive fronts before. I thought their ability to throw the football early gave them some momentum.
“Then I thought the second half, they did a good job of wearing us down. So we’ve got to be able to get off the field. And we’ve also got to do a better job of driving the football offensively.”
The Pirates tried to regain some momentum late in the first half by subbing Katin Houser for Jake Garcia at quarterback.
“We felt like Jake was pressing a little bit and he just was doing some uncharacteristic things, so it felt like Katin deserved a shot. He had a good week in practice. I’m glad we got him in there and got him some work. Certainly both of them have a lot of things they can improve on.”
Garcia completed 6 of 8 for 111 yards with one TD and one interception.
Houser was 11 for 28 for 84 yards with no scores and one pick. He was playing in a situation where ECU was passing a lot due to the deficit and was sacked twice.
Houston didn’t say if there would be a quarterback competition during the bye week.
“I want to get in and look at the film and we’ll go through this open week and see where we sit,” Houston said.
The Pirates were not the same team as the first five weeks and that was the toughest thing to deal with.
“Knowing you’re better than what you did on the field, but what you did on the field is who you are,” said Houston. “We’ve got to put our heads down and take a good look at this film and go back to work and get the things fixed that we did not do well today.
“Get our kids back in a good spot health wise, get them back in a good spot mental wise, get ready for the second half of the season.”
The trip to West Point will be a contrast to the last venture. Charlotte had more than 70 first-year players on its roster, The service academies don’t take transfers and have greater continuity in personnel.
The Pirates are 8-0 against the Black Knights although the programs haven’t played since 2004.
Army coach Jeff Monken has four bowl wins in a 75-55 record over 11 seasons at Army, including victories over Navy the last two years.
The noon kickoff at Michie Stadium and the Pirates’ efforts to right the ship will be shown on ESPN2.
Army hosts Alabama-Birmingham (1-4, 0-2 AAC) on Saturday (Oct. 12) at noon (CBS Sports Network).
Jerry says
The Pirate defense doesn’t have a lockdown cover man since Revell’s injury. No one else has stepped up to the task. While the secondary has been suspect for the past couple of games, the real weakness of the defense was revealed by CLT. Not being able to hover an extra man in the box, rather than playing back to provide help in coverage, proved very costly to the Pirate run defense. CLT took advantage of almost every scheme the Pirate ‘D’ threw at them. There’s no quick cure, as the Pirate secondary is mediocre, at best. This season is about to become very ugly, as the offense continues to stumble, and even kickoff coverage has short-circuited. Too many players looked lost, or dropped passes, or blew coverages. JDB better figure out a way to hold onto the ball, or Army will do the same thing as CLT, or worse.
Richard says
I am so tired of coach saying we played a really good team today. Charlotte is not a really good team, we are a very bad team.
Cbruce says
Mike is beginning to sound like a broken record and it’s just going to get worse. I see a 4-8 record in this teams future!
Pirate for Life!! says
College football is in the most difficult environment ever before by far. We watched likely the two best teams this weekend, at least in the top 5 with Oregon and Ohio State. NIL budgets???? 23,000,000 & 22,000,000 respectively. The “free agent” player circus that is now college football is out of control. Gotta fix this mess. It leaves teams with lower budgets in a very difficult situation. With that being said, teams have to adapt. I truly was optimistic with the personnel we were able to pick up this off season but it takes time. New OC. Players that really need experience. All factors. Like everybody, I’m ready to see results now!! I believe Houston is a good man. I know he has won in the past. Nobody wants to win more than him as I see it. It’s been six years but, Coaches are learning how to navigate this new face of college sports. I don’t envy them myself. I’m a long time Pirate, as die hard as they come. Graduated in the early 90’s. If we go out looking for a replacement, then what does that look like? Think about it. Ruffin firing was an all time terrible mess that put us literally at the bottom. Tuff enough with consistency in leadership. Look at NC State, UNC, even Alabama narrowly escaped another upset this weekend. We so easily forget we are talking about players that are 18 – 22 in age in most cases. Not sure what the solution is, but cooler heads prevail. I fear this environment potentially undermines commitment, team first, work to earn your turn, time proven concepts that used to be the standard. We have been so close up until last game. That one left me very dissatisfied. Gets more difficult this weekend. A win over Army sure could heal a lot of frustration. Keep fighting, it’s darkest right before day I was always told. Go Pirates!!
Ken Gunn says
I also see a 4-8 season coming and would hate to see the football program become the catastrophe that is the men’s basketball program. We cannot continue in this direction and need to take a chance on change as soon as possible. It’s only fair to the players, the program and the current coaching staff. I have been a loyal supporter of the program for nearly 50 years and am a 1980 graduate. I’ve seen so many better days than what we are experiencing now.
Donald Tyson says
Can’t win without players! No coach anywhere can win on coaching alone. Best players win. Look at teams who have draft choices and you will see winning teams. Nil is key and there must be a salary cap for every team. But ncaa can’t do that because they are afraid of courts!