By
Denny O'Brien
©2013 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
NEW ORLEANS – It’s almost
a rite of passage for East Carolina to lose a game it is expected to
win. Upstart Tulane added to that painful legacy Saturday with a
heart-stomping 36-33 triple overtime win.
Perhaps it will prove a
needed wake-up call for a team that has seemingly dozed through periods
of its last two games after a convincing 55-31 victory over North
Carolina two weeks ago.
The Pirates haven’t been
nearly as proficient inside the red zone, and the mistakes have exceeded
their margin for error. It was enough Saturday to make you wonder if ECU
had become overconfident with a schedule that is far from intimidating.
Despite being a firm
favorite at Tulane, the Pirates spent more than three quarters looking
more the part of the underdog. The Green Wave was more aggressive and
dictated the tempo with a blitzing defense that kept the Pirates on
their heels.
That was especially the
case on third down and in the red zone.
ECU converted only 4 of
its 16 third down opportunities and also committed a series of miscues
inside the 20-yard line. Too often, it settled for field goals after
having first and goal. Then there was that 14-point swing off a 99-yard
pick six.
“They were showing us some
different looks,” East Carolina quarterback Shane Carden said about the
Tulane defense. “I think we were just kind of worried too much about
what they were showing us, and not just lining up and playing football.
“We were making
corrections on the sideline, but to a point you’ve kind of got to just
line up and play. I think we were letting what they were doing affect us
too much.”
That’s an understatement.
Until Carden finally found
a groove in the fourth quarter, he often looked uncertain, especially
the deeper the Pirates drove into Green Wave territory. The constant
threat of blitzes and the mixing of coverage kept the Pirates’ otherwise
prolific QB guessing.
Much of that can be
attributed Tulane’s defensive philosophy, one that has proven to give
ECU fits. The Green Wave brought pressure on nearly every play, while
its secondary essentially glued itself to Pirates receivers at the line
of scrimmage.
The result was four sacks
and six tackles for losses in the first half alone.
Credit Tulane for much of
the ECU offense’s early venture into a near-comatose state. The Green
Wave executed its defensive game plan with a degree of mastery that
would make Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster tip his hat.
But the fact that the
offense regained consciousness late and essentially did anything it
wanted moving forward suggests that perhaps it was sleepwalking for much
of the game.
Given the name on the
opponent’s jersey, the empty cavern in which the Pirates were playing
and the high-fives they’ve been getting since embarrassing UNC-Chapel
Hill, to some degree you can understand why.
The sobering lesson,
however, is that this team doesn’t have enough of a talent advantage to
just go through the motions. It’s a lesson the ECU program has been
taught many times before.
“It was a tough loss,”
Pirates Coach Ruffin McNeill said. “The kids are taking it pretty hard.
I was proud of the fact that we were down by ten and battled back.
"We had a chance to win at
the end, but you have to make those plays.”
East Carolina didn’t make
nearly enough of them during the first three quarters.
In a twisted sort of way,
maybe the heartbreak it suffered in New Orleans will motivate ECU to
approach each opponent as if it were a heated rival.