Frankly, this game scares me. Some of the things the Pirates haven’t been good at on both sides of the ball play right into a team built around rushing the football. Rice will try to slow down the flow of the game which is intended to limit ECU offensive possessions. Coupled with the Pirate offense’s inability to execute time-consuming drives over and over means the Pirate “D” could find itself on the field for a long time. It will be imperative for the Pirates to not only hold on to the ball, but get some points on the scoreboard. Playing disciplined defense against an experienced option offense must be the rule. The Pirates are good at flying around to the football, but must be willing to “stay home” and take care of each specific assignment - no abandoning receivers to run free on the back end.

Rice football has been around for a long time; I remember when they were a member of the old, storied Southwest Conference. ...but I frankly don't ever recall Rice being very good.

I miss seeing Spalding between the lines; he was a big part of the Pirates' success last year. Here's hoping to his return shortly. ...hoping for Gray's return, too; when healthy, the RBs room competes for being the brightest spot on this edition of the Pirates.

I really like your write-ups

Agreed, and contributing to your "lock" evaluation, a few of the supposed weaker teams in conference are developing to be tougher competition than predicted in preseason.

I’ll be, “the glass is half full”, on yesterday’s game. As a whole, the Pirates did what they were supposed to do, easily handle a team overmatched - like the Tide did to ECU. The change at QB1 proved successful, as EW pushed the passing game up the field. This also made the running game better by moving defenders out of the box. The defense played a solid game except on the first Eagles drive, and then during garbage time when several substitutes seemed lost. Tackling is still an issue. Now to what seems to be a big problem - discipline. In conduct more than performance, the Pirates where embarrassing. This cannot continue. The Pirates simply aren’t good enough to spot teams 50 - 75 yards in penalties. I am disappointed Coach Harrell didn’t address the poor conduct more directly postgame, but he clearly expressed his disgust during the game. Going forward, the jury is still out on the 2026 Pirates. It doesn’t appear, based on total performance, there will be any games where the Pirates will be a “lock”. Some good things happened yesterday, but the consistency required for a full 60 minutes is still missing. The next 13 days will be more important to the season than Saturday’s overpowering second quarter.

I hate to say it, but I've always considered games vs. all but very top echelon FCS teams (e.g., JMU in the couple of years before they jumpred to the FBS) to be the equivalent of a scrimmage game, in which the best upside is only neutral; you can only end up with either that or a bad result.

I’m not sure what we will learn against N. C. Central. Common sense says a moderately talented FBS team should be able to control a moderately talented FCS team. I would consider no penalties by the offense to be a huge improvement, and believe it would lead to more points scored. Additionally, burning more clock can only help the defense, which has its own problems to solve. I know they’re always working on tackling, and hopefully that will continue. You have to give a nod to the “D”, keeping ODU out of the end zone for the second half.

Last Sat. vs. ODU reminded me of the prior Sat. game vs. Ap plagued by 21 penalties (both teams in total) and other miscues, both games determined by who screwed up the least.

There were times yesterday when it looked like both teams had money on the other, but after all's said and done, yes, a dub is a dub, especially with ECU being away and a slight dog, and to a team that won 10 games last year (while that admittedly means less today than it used to, in this unhinged portal era in which we find ourselves.) Hats off to the Pirates defense, though in some ways, it felt like the ODU offense yesterday played the generous role that the ECU offense played last week for Ap. Question marks remain for the ECU offense, thought the running backs room continues to show promise, with Engleman being the man yesterday; hopefully Gray's non-contact injury doesn't become a theme. Next up is an FCS game, something I've always felt can yield only a neutral or bad result, but hopefully improvement will occur between now and the first conference game.

For the Pirates, a much-needed win. Pulling off the comeback while still having trouble sustaining drives is hard to do. Thankfully, the defense provided a score, and kept ODU out of the end zone during the second half. This addition of the Pirates can be hard to watch. At times, they can’t get out of their own way. I’m not sure enough can be fixed for the Pirates to have a winning season. The Monarchs aren’t as good as App State, and App State isn’t that good - at least at this point in the season. The Pirates should begin conference play at 2-2 in a couple of weeks. All three phases need improvement, and I don’t believe N.C. Central will provide the benchmark required. Hopefully, enough of the players who are still trying to figure the game out can achieve a level of consistency that will allow the Pirates to compete in the American.

If "Mitch has obviously got to do a better job at quarterback," then his OL has obviously got to give him a higher chance/better protection to do a better job at qb. ...and speaking of the Pirates poor 3rd down success rate, that play call for a low probability fade pass to the right sideline late in the game on a crucial 3rd and 3 (or something like that) at roughly midfield was mind-blowingly stupid.

That was very hard to watch. When you play a rival at home with whom you’re evenly matched, and the rival commits a whopping 13 penalties, as Ap State did, you should certainly win, but ECU seemed to be almost trying to match its opponents in costly penalties. Both ECU lines were bested overall; I thought that that was decisive more than anything else; the ECU secondary having no answers whatsoever comes in a close second. I’ve seen online complaining about Griffis, but other than him giving up that costly strip sack, and the 1 int, I thought he played OK, and wasn’t well protected. The ECU running game showed promise, but it needs more help upfront. Did I say that was hard to watch?

Given the number of times App State shot themselves in the foot with mistake after mistake, the Pirates would never have been as close as the final indicated. Time after time App State ran the same play through a gaping hole left by an out of position linebacker. When someone was there, chances are they were arm-tackling. Of some consolation, the Pirate interior line did a decent job on the Mountaineers. Overall, the Pirate defense appeared to be out-schemed most of the day. The Pirate offense was much more productive this week. However, an injury to the starting center quickly slowed the offense to a crawl. The sudden inability to make blocks was painfully obvious. A suspect defense cannot survive the offense’s inability to stay on the field. It’s clear that the tremendous roster turnover, coupled with new coordinators on both sides of the ball, will require more time to gel into a cohesive team. The Pirates may be hard pressed to get to bowl eligibility unless the improvement begins now.

Ouch. The only thing positive that I can think of today is that I'm glad that next up is Ap State, an opportunity for ECU vs. an historically decent FBS program. That to me is preferable to ECU facing next up an NC Central, for example; presumably it helps ECU to put yesterday in the rear view. ...not sure how much can be taken from yesterday; hopefully not much, the thrashing was that severe, though at least it can be said that penalties MUST be reduced hugely going forward. Also, I hate to say it, but the tackling reminded me of the bad old days with Scott Montgomery on the sideline. The other unhappy thought is Spalding, their playmaker, being out before the first snap of the season, plus another would-be starting receiver or two; hopefully they're healthy sooner rather than later!