GREENVILLE — Navy had almost two weeks to prepare for East Carolina and it showed in a 34-20 American Athletic Conference win for the Midshipmen at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday.
The Pirates squandered some early scoring chances and could not keep pace with the visitors in the second half. ECU held a 3-0 lead at the midpoint.
After a fourth-down stop at the Pirates’ 36 on Navy’s first possession, ECU moved to the 2-yard line of the Midshipmen on a 29-yard gain by Rahjai Harris. The series ended as Katin Houser overthrew Tyler Savage, who was open in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-goal at the three.
Andrew Conrad was wide right from the right hash on a 30-yard field goal attempt on the second series for the Pirates.
“We played really good defense in the first half,” said ECU coach Blake Harrell on the Pirate radio network. “… We had opportunities down in the red zone and just didn’t capitalize on them. We just made some mistakes.
“Navy is a good football team and if you don’t capitalize when you can, they’re going to hang around and make you pay for it — and they certainly did. The second half, we couldn’t get off the field defensively. We had a few chances on third down and they made some big plays.
“Until the last couple of drives offensively, it was tough to get things going today.”
Conrad connected from 35 yards with 9:47 left in the half after Samuel Dankah forced a fumble and Tymir Brown recovered at the Navy 16.
Navy set the tone on the first series of the second half by driving 76 yards in 14 plays to go ahead to stay at 7-3 on a 16-yard run by Brandon Chatman with 6:58 remaining in the third quarter. The drive by the Midshipmen consumed almost eight minutes and included four conversions on third down.
The visitors extended their advantage to 14-3 when ECU had a turnover on downs and a 36-yard run by Eli Heinrich capped a possession that covered 57 yards.
Conrad’s 48-yard field goal closed the gap to 14-6 with 11:59 left.
Navy responded with a 61-yard scoring pass from Braxton Woodson to Nathan Kent.
The Pirates were within 21-14 after Houser’s 9-yard scoring toss to Winston Wright Jr. with 5:35 to go. Woodson’s 38-yard TD run put the Pirates down, 27-13, with 2:49 remaining.
Woodson ran 10 yards for a score after an interception by Kyle Jacobs had given Navy the ball at the ECU 15.
A 52-yard touchdown pass from Houser to Yannick Smith completed the scoring with 1:30 left.
The Pirates, playing less than six full days after a 40-28 win at North Texas, slipped to 7-5 overall and 5-3 in the AAC.
Navy (8-3, 6-2) had a 454-350 lead in total yards as Woodson completed 12 of 19 for 165 yards with a score and no picks. He ran 15 times for 125 yards with two TDs. Woodson is the backup quarterback for the Middies, but he had plenty of time to prepare after a 35-0 loss to Tulane in Annapolis on Nov. 16.
Houser was 20 for 36 for 219 yards with two scores and one interception.
Rahjai Harris led ECU’s rushing with 19 carries for 88 yards. Yannick Smith had three catches for 66 yards and Wright’s nine receptions accounted for 64 yards. Anthony Smith had three grabs for 30 yards.
Navy took a 10-2 lead in the series, which includes a 6-0 record in Greenville.
There was a crowd of 35,663 at ECU’s Senior Day.
“I want to give a shoutout to the fans,” Harrell said. “Thanksgiving weekend when a lot of people are out of town, for them to show up as Pirate Nation like that — and support those seniors like that — was awesome.”
ECU will be looking for fan support in its upcoming bowl trip with date, time, location and opponent to be announced.
Today’s game was a reality check; the prior four opponents (with the possible exception of N. Texas) are FBS bottom feeders.
The passing game was ECU’s Achilles heel today; Houser was tentative and there were too many drops besides. Moreover, Navy made adjustments to ECU’s early running success.
Hopefully the Pirates will still draw an at least half respectable bowl opponent, but there’s likely no hope now of it coming from a Power Four conference.
30 players away from a championship
It’s easy to pin this on Hauser who was off all day, but equal credit to his previously reliable go to target Smith only catching 3 of 11 passes, most were catchable. If I heard later they had been out drinking the night before it would all make sense.
D played great until they were worn out. Offensive play calling was missing the creativity from previous weeks. Still running the ball for a yard or less up the middle in the 4th quarter was hard to comprehend. Congratulations to Blake, I still believe he was the right choice to carry this forward as he is proven a culture builder.
I don’t know if the Pirates could have held off Navy even if they had scored big on the two 1st-and-goal opportunities. It would have been nice to have seen the Pirates play a complete game against one of the better AAC opponents. What is concerning about the Pirates overall performance is the lack of discipline… in the 12th game of the season. You can’t do some of the stupid stuff exhibited by the Pirates and expect to win. Coach Harrell, it seems, has done nothing to rein in his players.
Also, the Pirate “D” still needs a secondary, as too many receivers are allowed to run past the back line as if they had a hall pass. If we can’t recruit a lockdown cornerback, the Pirates will always have a problem getting off the field on third down.
7-5 is better than I thought possible, and I give Harrell and the crew some credit for finishing a game over .500.
Hate to think how many players jump to the portal before the bowl game. Chances are the bowl game the Pirates get will be in mid-December, and hopefully, they’ll still have a full roster. Considering the times, that’s probably too optimistic.