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Hurricanes blow past pesky Pirates
By The Associated Press
MIAMI � Miami has
played its best in big games. This wasn't one of them, and it showed.
Frank Gore ran for 134 yards and a touchdown as the second-ranked
Hurricanes beat winless East Carolina 38-3 Saturday night.
Miami extended the nation's longest home winning streak to 24 games, but
did so with a lackluster performance that has become somewhat routine
during the team's recent success.
``When you've got 80,000 people and you can't even get the bus to the
stadium, you don't have to say a whole lot. You know it's a big game,''
coach Larry Coker said. ``I called the Florida game a two-blimp game. We
had the MetLife and the Goodyear blimp. We don't have those every
week.''
Certainly not against the Pirates (0-3).
The Hurricanes (3-0) opened the game with a touchdown on their third
play, then stalled against the nation's worst rushing defense.
East Carolina gave up 361 yards on the ground in each of its first two
games - losses to Cincinnati and West Virginia - and was outscored
88-10.
Everyone expected the Hurricanes to cruise. They were 41-point favorites
and talked all week about using the game to work on minimizing
penalties, reducing turnovers and giving up fewer big plays. They
succeeded in doing all three, but didn't manage many scores.
Gore was one of the few bright spots until a fourth-quarter barrage
fueled by turnovers.
He averaged 5.6 yards on 24 carries and became the first player in
school history to run for more than 100 yards in each of the first three
games.
Nonetheless, he said it was tough to get up for East Carolina.
``I could have had way more yards than I did,'' he said. ``I just never
really never got into the game. I couldn't get into a groove. I made a
couple of good runs, but I think some of them should have been
touchdowns. I just wasn't really hyped tonight.''
Gore sat out the fourth quarter, but had a good seat as Miami pulled
away from the Pirates.
It started with Baraka Atkins sacking Desmond Robinson in the end zone,
causing a fumble that Santonio Thomas recovered for a touchdown that
made it 24-3.
On the next possession, Antrel Rolle sacked Robinson and caused a fumble
that Bryan Pata recovered. Two plays later, Jarrett Payton ran 48 yards
almost untouched to make it 31-3.
Glenn Sharpe intercepted a pass from Robinson on the ensuing possession.
And backup quarterback Derrick Crudup engineered a 63-yard scoring
drive, capped by his 10-yard TD pass to Darnell Jenkins.
``When we started bleeding, they smelled the blood and really came at us
on both sides of the ball,'' said first-year East Carolina coach John
Thompson, Florida's defensive coordinator last season when the
Hurricanes beat the Gators 41-16 in Gainesville.
Brock Berlin, coming off an impressive game against No. 19 Florida, was
13-of-23 for 179 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Berlin completed 18 of his final 21 passes for 269 yards against the
Gators last week, rallying Miami from a 23-point deficit to a 38-33
victory.
He gave the Hurricanes a 7-0 lead against East Carolina when he
connected with Roscoe Parrish for a 50-yard TD pass on the third play.
After that, there was little excitement at the Orange Bowl. Miami went
flat, much like it did after beating Florida and Florida State last
season.
The Hurricanes thumped the Gators in Gainesville, then showed little
motivation the following week in beating Temple 44-21. And coming off a
dramatic 28-27 win over the Seminoles, they struggled at West Virginia.
``The last thing I said to them in the dressing room was it's not about
East Carolina or anybody else,'' Coker said. ``It's about how we
perform.''
The Hurricanes had 449 total yards of offense, but scored only 17 points
in the first half and led by just two touchdowns when the fourth quarter
began.
``We're a work in progress,'' Coker said. ``This wasn't our best game.
We haven't played that yet. We want our best game to be the last one of
the season.''
02/23/2007 10:52 AM
Copyright 2003 The
Associated Press. Bonesville.net contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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