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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
By Brian Bailey |
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No time for looking back
By
Brian Bailey
©2008 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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ON
SALE NOW |
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Coach Skip Holtz knows
his club can’t afford a
hangover. You can
compare it to golf. You
don’t want that bad shot
to turn into several bad
holes.
That’s the concern at
East Carolina this week.
The Pirates didn’t
execute the way they
would have liked and
lost to North Carolina
State in overtime.
Second guessing is easy.
This was one of those
games that everyone has
an opinion on.
Many have told me they
thought the Pirates
should have gotten a
field goal after State’s
first goal line stand.
I agreed with the
decision to go for the
touchdown. I think a
touchdown at the time
would have put the
Wolfpack away. The
Pirates would have had
an 11-point lead and all
of the momentum.
The worst case scenario
was that you give the
ball up, which East
Carolina did, and
hopefully the defense
forces a punt, which it
did.
Holtz had this reaction.
"Looking at it again, I
would have done it
again. I probably would
have called a timeout
before the play,” said
Holtz. “There was a
little bit of confusion,
it seemed, between the
fullback and the
tailback on the play,
but that wasn't the
reason that the play
wasn't successful.
"I even thought about
calling a time out
because it was a big
play and I might have
wanted to think about it
for a second. But when I
looked down the field,
the official was all the
way at the other end and
there were only about
four or five seconds
left on the clock and I
only had a couple
seconds to get there. So
I didn't do it.
"Hindsight is 20/20, but
I still would have gone
for it on fourth down. I
would have called a
different play, knowing
what I know now, but I
still would have gone
for it on fourth down."
The Pirates came right
back down the field, but
again couldn’t get it in
the end zone. They had
to settle for the field
goal. That was the right
call, because that late
in the game you had to
come away with points.
Those two goal line
stands won the game for
the Wolfpack. Great
teams make the plays to
win close games. This
time, the Pirates just
weren’t up to the
challenge.
"Obviously the offense,
being down in the red
zone a couple times
late, had a chance, but
our defense had the
opportunity to stop
them, too,” said Holtz.
“I thought our kicking
game had an opportunity
to show up there on the
final kickoff, when they
turned and broke it back
toward their bench for
about a 45-yard return.
"I think there are
plenty of areas where we
could have gotten the
job done in that game
Saturday."
In the upsets over
Virginia Tech and West
Virginia, the Pirates
dominated the line of
scrimmage. Tulane
certainly held its own
against ECU. N.C. State
beat the Pirates up
front, especially with
the game on the line.
Still, ECU had its
chance in overtime. The
Pirates got a first
down, but then Patrick
Pinkney got hit from the
blindside and fumbled.
State scored with its
possession and
won the game 30-24 in
OT.
Pinkney wore his
disappointment on his
face afterwards.
“We just didn’t make the
plays we needed to,” he
said.
A loss like that one can
have lingering effects,
if a team lets it.
That’s the challenge
this week, to get over
the Wolfpack hangover.
Houston is just 1-3, so
the Pirates will once
again be favored.
Break out the
Alka-Seltzer or make
that the Purple-Seltzer
to ward off the
hangover.
BB
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09/23/2008 01:06:35 AM |
Replay
last night's
Brian Bailey Show with guests Phil
Petty and Will MacKenzie. The show, Eastern North
Carolina's longest running sports radio
call-in show, airs every Monday night at 7
p.m. on Pirate Radio 1250-AM and 930-AM.