|
Game No. 9: Navy 76, East Carolina 35 |
|
|
|
| |
|
Game
Slants
Saturday, November 6, 2010
By Denny O'Brien |
 |
ECU looking defenseless again
By
Denny O'Brien
©2010 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
GREENVILLE — It wasn't long
ago that a postseason bowl seemed a foregone conclusion for East Carolina.
Two weeks to be exact. That's when the Pirates were 5-2, riding three
consecutive victories, and looking like the favorite to win Conference USA.
It also was a time when the
Pirates were demonstrating significant strides defensively and were ahead of
where most expected them to be at this stage of the rebuilding process.
But after consecutive losses,
including a 76-35 keelhauling by Navy Saturday, it would be premature to
assume the Pirates will have plans for the holidays. Especially when you
consider the degree to which the ECU defense has regressed over the past two
weeks.
And that is a lot.
The defense that many were
praising for its progress after a 37-10 victory over Marshall now looks more
like the inexperienced unit that lost nine starters from last year.
Truthfully, it looks worse than anyone could have possibly envisioned
heading into the season.
After surrendering 49 points
and 424 yards against a mediocre Central Florida offense last week, the
Pirates delivered the type of nightmarish encore that set their defense back
by decades. That was literally the case Saturday considering the 76 points
Navy registered on the scoreboard was the most in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium
history and the most overall since Guilford College dropped 79 on the
Pirates in 1932.
That, coincidentally, was the
inaugural year of ECU football.
The defensive plan and the
execution of it was so bad against the Midshipmen that it reached a point
where it seemed onside kicking after each score might be in the Pirates'
best interest. It actually did reach a desperation point where the Pirates
decided to strip the redshirt off of freshman Lee Pegues in order to
compensate for recent injuries along the defensive front.
“We're a beat up football
team,” Pirates Coach Ruffin McNeill said. “Probably everybody is, but we've
lost a few guys — quite a number of guys for the rest of the season.
“We've got some guys banged up
from tonight, and with a short week around the corner we have to physically
get them back. It's a physical game. We've had about seven physical games in
a row.”
You can no doubt attribute
many of the Pirates' defensive struggles to unquestionable physical
shortcomings. ECU is comparatively smaller than most of its opponents and is
still relatively inexperienced at most positions.
UCF showed last week how easy
it was to physically push the ECU defensive front around, and Navy
demonstrated how often the Pirates find themselves out of position. So when
questioning whether the Pirates' defensive issues can be attributed to the
schemes or the talent, the answer is simple.
It's both.
“They really gashed us on
scheme,” Pirates defensive tackle Josh Smith said. “It was more schematics
than being able to fight off blocks.
“I hope this really goes and
resonates with guys so that we get that fighting spirit back. I hope guys
come in this week and work that much harder.”
While the defense will
certainly shoulder much of the blame for the Pirates pasting against Navy,
the offense wasn't without fault. Four third quarter turnovers helped the
Middies put the game away and send much of the 50,191 to the exits early.
Even so, you have to think
that the issues ECU is facing offensively aren't remotely as severe as the
ones it is facing on defense. After all, the Pirates did compile 567 yards
of offense on Saturday and moved the ball seemingly at will.
You seriously can't find much
fault in a quarterback who delivered a 413-yard, five-touchdown performance.
And aside from the the turnovers, it's difficult to criticize an offense
averaging over 36 points and 438 yards per outing.
East Carolina clearly has the
offense to not only become bowl eligible, but to win the rest of its games.
The defense is another story.
Unless it makes significant
improvements there, it's difficult to consider the Pirates a postseason lock.
Send
a message to Denny O'Brien.
Dig into Denny
O'Brien's Bonesville archives.
11/07/2010 04:14:37 AM |
