NEW ORLEANS — Tulane scored on a 4-yard pass from Jake Retzlaff to Javin Gordon with 35 seconds left to take a 26-19 American Conference win over East Carolina on Thursday night.
The score completed a 75-yard drive that took 5:13 off the clock after the Pirates had tied the score at 19 on a 26-yard field goal by Nick Mazzie with 5:48 left.
ECU moved from its 18 to the Tulane 36 on a 22-yard catch and run by Parker Jenkins plus two pass interference calls on the Green Wave before Katin Houser threw incomplete to the end zone as time expired.
The Pirates trailed 12–0 at the half on four field goals by Patrick Durkin, who connected from 30, 29, 21 and 40 yards. The hosts had a 172-4 command in yards gained in the first quarter.
“Defensively, we did some good things in the first half as far as holding them to four field goals,” said ECU coach Blake Harrell on the Pirate radio network. “Offensively, we couldn’t get it going. Didn’t think we had great energy in the first half.”
ECU took a 16-12 lead in the third quarter. The comeback started with a three and out by the defense after Tulane took the second half kickoff.
A 12-yard punt return by Kyler Pearson to the ECU 30-yard line set up a series that featured a 49-yard completion from Katin Houser to Anthony Smith at the Green Wave 10.
Houser hit Brock Spalding for a 7-yard touchdown with 11:54 left in the third quarter.
The Pirates took the lead as a 10-yard keeper by Houser capped a 57-yard drive with 2:43 left in the third. A 2-point pass attempt failed, leaving ECU with a 13-12 advantage.
ECU recovered a pooch kick at the Tulane 31, which led to a 46-yard field goal by Mazzie that put the Pirates up, 16-12 with 45 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Green Wave went ahead, 19-16, on the first play of the fourth quarter as Retzlaff hit Zycarl Lewis Jr. for a 63-yard touchdown as Pirate defender TyMir Brown lost his footing in coverage.
The Pirates had 3rd-and-goal at the one before being assessed a delay of game penalty and settling for a field goal on their penultimate possession.
“We can’t have those things and beat a good team like Tulane,” Harrell said.
The Green Wave (5-1, 2-0 American) had a 458-340 lead in total yards as Retzlaff, a transfer from Brigham Young, completed 26 of 36 for 347 yards with two TDs and no interceptions.
Houser was 19 for 30 for 180 yards with one score and no picks.
ECU (3-3, 1-1) outrushed the hosts, 160-96, as Marlon Gunn Jr. had 10 carries for 52 yards. Smith had two catches for 54 yards.
“It’s not always as bad as you think it is,” said Pirates safety Teagan Wilk, who stopped a Wave threat with a fumble recovery at the ECU 4 with 14:17 left to play. ” … We’re going to look at film (Friday). We’ll see a lot of stuff we did really well and a lot of things we’ve got to improve on. We’ve just got to get those things fixed.”
ECU plays its third straight game on ESPN with a matchup against Tulsa at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. The Golden Hurricane is 2-4 overall and 0-3 in the AC with an open date this week.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, “Offensively, we couldn’t get it going. Didn’t think we had great energy in the first half.” Once again, the Pirate offense spent the first half sputtering as Tulane’s speed rush punched the Pirates offense in the mouth. It seemed as if the Pirates o-line had not prepared for Tulane’s defensive calling card. That’s hard to believe, considering every assessment of the Green Wave defense points to their rush abilities. What is also hard to believe is why the Pirates offense took so long to exploit the known Tulane vulnerability, run defense. I think Coach Harrell forced the issue on JB. Also, no mention of of Engleman in the article, who provided a spark when he was playing.
What can’t be ignored are the penalties. The bonehead award goes to the offensive sideline staff, who sent out a substitute AFTER Houser had the offense in formation at the goal line on a third-and-one, drawing a delay-of-game penalty. The Pirates were lucky the referee stepped in because the center, thinking he heard the snap signal, snapped the ball. The Pirates followed this debacle with a pitiful pass to the flat which Tulane completely overwhelmed. Settling for a field goal to tie the game up, proved costly.
The defense certainly had its’ good moments, keeping the score close in the first half, and getting a three-and-out to start the first half. However, the Pirates made Retzlaff look like an MVP, never solving the Tulane passing scheme. At times, including Tulane’s final drive, the Pirates looked foolish in coverage, or should I say, non-coverage.
It’s very apparent the Pirates are not a good team. They can be, at times, but too often the “good” comes after digging a hole too deep to climb out. 6-6, maybe 7-5, looks to be all we can expect this season, unless immediate, sustained improvement comes quickly.
Coach Harrell’s efforts have put some fire back into the program. It might take longer for the fire to translate into the level of success desired by Pirate Nation.
What a very odd game, including many critical, first-game-of-the-season type mistakes by both teams, particularly Tulane; truth be told, and not to take anything away from ECU’s defense (which manhandled TU’s run game), but in some ways, TU itself was ECU’s best defense.
Yet the oddest miscue of all was when ECU called timeout on itself in virtual simultaneity with a fake punt on a critical 4th down play that worked perfectly, only to be nullified by the TO! …never seen that before; it was painful to watch.
In the end, Tulane’s ability to pass and ECU’s inability to do so was the difference in this one. Re the latter, Houser was generally not well protected, and ECU could not pressure Retzlaff.
This would’ve been a quality win that TU sort of tried to hand the Pirates.
The TO on the fake punt was odd… second-guessing?? Too bad, as you pointed out, the fake worked perfectly. I thought the sideline-initiated fiasco at the goal line was simply stupid. Houser got the Pirates offense to the line quickly, as he has been taught to do, thereby freezing the Tulane defense. The sideline sends in a sub, causing the penalty. If you were writing a script, you couldn’t make this up.