By Denny O'Brien
©2009 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.

You can certainly understand the preseason hopes about East Carolina’s offensive potential. After a Conference USA championship run that included a series of defensive field goal battles, the offense had nowhere to go but up.

That notion was accentuated by the return of almost the entire offensive front, most of the key contributors at receiver and running back, and increased depth bred out of necessity during a parade of injuries and suspensions last year.

There also was that important detail about the return of a sixth-year senior under center. The announcement that Patrick Pinkney would be granted an additional year made ECU an immediate favorite to repeat as C-USA champs among the pigskin pundits.

His maturity, leadership, and history of big-time performances in big-stage scenarios even prompted BCS banter in the locker room.

Yet two games into the 2009 season, the Pirates strangely can’t match the modest production of last season’s makeshift group. And if ECU wasn’t the beneficiary of solid field position and its opponents’ generosity, the overall point total would be significantly lower.

In the aftermath of ECU’s 35-20 loss in Morgantown Saturday, it was hard to pluck many positives from the sputtering ECU offense.

“Throwing the ball, it always seemed like we where a hair short, a hair behind them, just a hair overthrown,” East Carolina Coach Skip Holtz said. “I mean, in this game the difference between winning and losing can be just a little bit. I didn’t think we were very sharp as an offensive football team.”

Outside of the first 20 minutes of the season, ECU has been anything but sharp.

The Pirates spent more than a quarter manhandling the small Appalachian defensive front, collecting almost as many rushing yards during that stretch as it did in any game last season. But once the Apps loaded the box, the Pirates had no solution for an opponent that surrendered 40 points to McNeese State on Saturday.

Much of that can be attributed to the fact that ECU has become especially harmless through the air. Through two games, Pinkney has completed only 42 percent of his attempts, thrown more interceptions than touchdown tosses, and is averaging barely over 150 yards passing per game.

It’s a complete 180 from early last year when he was generating legitimate Heisman buzz.

“If I could fix it that easy, I would have fixed it at halftime,” Holtz said. “I don’t know right now. I’m going to have to sit down and talk with Patrick.

“We’re not calling different plays. I’m just using the last drive where we throw a deep ball and he overthrows it. He hung it up there and he just overthrew it. Then he throws a slant route behind the receiver in man coverage. Just some little things like that we’re going to have to turn and get it corrected.”

And pretty fast, too.

It’s easy to pull for Pinkney to make a quick about face and become a more reliable, consistent field general. He’s affable, mild-mannered, and represents as much of an ECU football legacy as you can find.

During the course of his career he’s been the engineer behind some of the most memorable victories in ECU history. On those occasions he was at worst an efficient game manager, and at his best was near legendary with his performance.

But Pinkney has also delivered his share of statistical duds.

It has almost reached the point where you don’t know which Pinkney to expect on a given Saturday. Will it be the one who shredded North Carolina in 2007, efficiently worked over Virginia Tech and West Virginia in 2008, or the one who was ineffective to start 2009?

The answer to that question will ultimately dictate the success of ECU’s season. That is unless Holtz and offensive coordinator Todd Fitch decide to add another quarterback into the shuffle like they’ve done in the past.

The good news is that East Carolina has smart coaches who will work relentlessly for a solution that suits the available personnel. They’ve proven that much before.

But with a stingy North Carolina defense waiting next week and the C-USA schedule looming soon after, time is suddenly running short. The Pirates simply can’t afford to dig themselves into a deeper offensive hole.