MEMPHIS — East Carolina sustained a 41-34 American Conference overtime loss at Memphis on Thursday night under all-too-familiar circumstances for the Pirates.
Like last week’s 30-17 loss at Alabama-Birmingham on Thursday night, ECU had a significant lead but was ultimately undone by a game-ending interception in overtime.
The Pirates dropped to 3-4 for the season and 1-2 in league play going into a home game with Temple on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 3 p.m. (ESPN+). The Owls (2-5, 1-2) have an open date this week.
ECU tied the score at 34 with a 20-yard scoring pass on a 4th-and-9 from Mitch Griffis to Landon Sides with 1:30 remaining.
Sides, a transfer from North Texas, had his best game as a Pirate with seven catches for 130 yards.
The Tigers got as far as their 49-yard line before regulation time expired.
Memphis took its first lead at 34-27 with 3:31 left to play in regulation on a 2-yard keeper by Marcus Stokes.
The Tigers got their overtime touchdown as Stokes was flipped into the end zone on a 5-yard run.
ECU’s biggest lead was 24-10 with 10:20 to go in the third quarter on a 4-yard run by T.J. Engleman. Sides caught a pass for the 2-point conversion.
Engleman had 18 carries for 92 yards.
The Pirates made a quarterback change in the second quarter with Mitch Griffis coming in for Emory Willians, who completed five of 13 for 61 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
Griffis connected on 14 of 26 attempts for 199 yards with one TD and two picks. On the final interception by Ellis Ellis Jr., the Tigers defender appeared to push off Sides before making the catch — but there was no call.
“Obviously, a frustrating night the way it ends,” said ECU coach Blake Harrell on the Pirate radio network. “Our kids fought their tails off. Hats off to Memphis. They did some good things to get the win. …
“Obviously, the last play of the game, we’d love to have that back. You don’t want to put it in the officials’ hands to make a call one way or the other. … First and goal at the four. That was frustrating.”
Harrell addressed the quarterback situation.
“Emory did some good things but he missed some things … ,” Harrell said. “Mitch has got to take better care of the ball. That position there, we’ve got to be better at that position.
“It’s been hurting us. We’ve got to do better. We did some good things tonight. We’ve got to build on that. … We’ve got to continue to evaluate that position. Who’s going to give us the best chance? Is it Trey Burke. He’s going to take care of the football. He’s got a live arm.
“We saw some good things out of Mitch. We saw some good things out of Emory. At the same time, we’ve got to do better.”
Memphis (6-2, 3-1) had a 484-421 lead in total yards.
Noah Perez kicked field goals of 22, 30, 49 and 40 yards for ECU.
After the 22-yarder, the Pirates went up 10-0 as Ashton Gray scored on a 1-yard run that completed an 80-yard drive with 3:11 left in the first quarter.
Two more boots by Perez put the Pirates up, 16-3 at the half. The lead was 27-20 after Perez hit from 40 yards with 12:26 left in the fourth quarter.
Memphis pulled even at 27 on a 4-yard pass from Stokes to Jemyri Davis after the Tigers got the ball at the ECU 28 on a muffed punt catch.
After the Tigers went ahead, 34-27, Engleman started ECU’s 75-yard drive with a 27-yard run.
Stokes completed 29 of 43 for 320 yards with three TDs and no picks. Davis had seven catches for 91 yards with two scores.
Give credit to the Memphis offense, which absolutely abused the Pirate secondary in the second half. Memphis dropped as many TD passes as were caught, while the flat footed Pirates could only chase. The Pirate defensive staff was out-coached, particularly at crunch time.
The offense showed a lot of grit, but on a night where you needed to score touchdowns, the Pirates had to settle for several field goals (credit N. Perez). As for Griffis, the last pass in OT didn’t have a chance, as Landon Sides never saw the ball coming. Still, in many ways, the offense made progress.
Next week will be tough, as the season could be slipping away if the Pirates can’t figure out a way to win.
Football is a funny game. The Pirates are a couple plays away from being 5-2, but with the 2nd straight OT loss on the road we sit at a disappointing 3-4. On offense inconsistent QB play continues to be our Achilles heal. The defense could not get to the Memphis QB so he had ample time to pick apart our secondary. Hopefully we can improve on our weaknesses and make a positive run down the home stretch and win maybe 3 of the last four. But we will need better play all around, including play calling by our coaching staff to do this.
Honestly, it never felt like the Pirates would win this one (to me, anyway), even after they were up at the half. The whole tone and tenor of the game felt eerily similar to their unhappy contest vs. UAB.
Another frustrating Blake Harrell head scratcher was his Mike Houstonesque management of the ball to end the 1st half; ECU managed to get the fg only as a gift from the offsides Memphis OL.
I do give Coach credit for calling for the 2 point conversion in the 3rd quarter, and the Pirates rally at the end of regulation also showed some resilience that I wasn’t expecting. The Pirates qb switchout seems to have been the right move; they need to fully exploit Griffis’ running ability with designed runs and rpo’s. It doesn’t look like he has a terribly strong arm for downfield stretch passes.
Engleman and Sides had big nights. The latter is a find; they’re both bright spots. It’s really unfortunate that Spalding still hasn’t made an appearance; ECU misses his playmaking.
What’s both frustrating and a source of hope all in one is that 3 of the 4 losses could’ve been flipped by a single play or two (as could’ve the ODU win, admittedly.)