Inside
Game Day
Friday, November 29, 2013
By Al Myatt |
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Pirates stopped cold, will try
again for No. 10
Al Myatt
©2013 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
HUNTINGTON, WV — The East Carolina
football team that played Marshall on Friday for the East Division
championship of Conference USA bore little resemblance to the one that
compiled a 9-2 record during the previous portion of the regular season.
Even in its losses,
15-10 to Virginia Tech on Sept. 14
and
36-33 in double overtime at Tulane
on Oct. 12, ECU had been competitive.
But that changed on the synthetic turf of
James F. Edwards Field at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. The husband and wife
contributed $65 million in long green to Marshall.
Green definitely was the color du jour on
a sunny Friday afternoon off of 3rd Avenue.
The green-clad Thundering Herd was
waiting on the Pirates like a street corner bully and administered a 59-28
beatdown.
Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick
was hopeful that the Herd would get to host the C-USA championship game next
Saturday.
"That would be big," said Hamrick, a
former Marshall football player who was AD at ECU from 1995 to 2003. "We're
pretty good at home."
Marshall (9-3) is 6-0 in the Edwards'
lair and 3-3 on the road.
ECU will have an opportunity for
atonement in a yet to be announced bowl game but will need a better effort
to get 10 wins for only the second time in program history.
The 1991 team that went 11-1 is the
measuring stick at ECU.
The Pirates have won nine games 12 times
(1963, 1964, 1965, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1995, 1999, 2008, 2009 and to
this point, 2013).
"It's hard to get nine and we have a
chance to get 10," said fourth-year ECU coach Ruffin McNeill.
He said he's confident in ECU's ability
to regroup.
"I'm proud of the way this team has been
resilient all year long," McNeill said. "We've faced some adversity from
injuries to other items and they've just kept bouncing back. ... Today was
tough and I told Doc (Holliday, Marshall coach), they did a good job."
The Pirates got an extra helping of
adversity at Marshall, falling behind 24-0.
The Herd had ECU schemed and executed a
well-conceived game plan that included establishing a running attack and
pressuring ECU quarterback Shane Carden.
Add the emotion of Senior Day and a
supportive crowd of 25,117 and it was a lethal combination for the Pirates'
division title hopes.
The contention could be made that a short
week after
a 42-28 win at N.C. State was not
the best scenario for ECU. The Pirates also experienced significant rain
during their only heavy practice on Tuesday before the Marshall game.
The factors en masse produced an
uncharacteristically bland effort for ECU.
Two normally-reliable commodities for
ECU, the passing of Carden and the rush defense, struggled.
Carden was picked off three times and
didn't have a touchdown pass for the first time in 20 games.
Essray Taliaferro gashed the Pirates from
the get-go and finished with 26 carries for 161 yards.
Marshall ran for 267 yards against a unit
that was No. 9 in the Football Bowl Subdivision, allowing just 103.9 yards
per game.
"We were able to run the ball and anytime
we are able to do that, we can stay pretty balanced," said Herd coach Doc
Holliday.
Herd quarterback Rakeem Cato complimented
the ground game by completing 17 of 28 passes for 272 yards with two TDs and
one interception.
The Pirates had a flurry late in the
first half.
Montese Overton forced a fumble and Chip
Thompson recovered to set up an 87-yard drive that produced ECU's first
points on a 2-yard run by Vintavious Cooper, who ran 20 times for 93 yards.
Carden had a 59-yard completion to Isaiah Jones on the Pirates' initial
scoring drive.
Carden completed 29 of 53 for 291 yards.
"We usually do a great job of starting
fast," Carden said. "We came in and we weren't clicking on those first
couple of drives. We couldn't get anything going and we had to play from
behind. We just had a lot of things not go our way. A few tipped balls just
happened to pop in their hands. We're a lot better than that."
Justin Hardy had 10 catches for 88 yards
but the Herd limited his gains after the catch.
"We tried to help whoever had Hardy,"
Holliday said. "Chuck Heater (Marshall defensive coordinator) did a nice job
mixing up the brackets (coverage rotations)."
Marshall drove 53 yards for a touchdown
to start the third quarter after ECU had gotten within 24-10 at the half.
"We didn't come out and do the things we
wanted to do those first five minutes of the second half," McNeill said.
The Pirates got Warren Harvey field goals
twice in the red zone, but they were small boosts in the face of a large
Marshall lead.
This ECU team still has a chance to do
something special in its bowl game. On a positive note, the Pirates haven't
lost two straight games the last two seasons.
E-mail Al Myatt.
PAGE UPDATED
11/30/13 12:48 AM.
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