"Lewis picked ECU over other offers from N.C. Central, Old Dominion and The Citadel..." God bless Omarion Lewis, and I wish him nothing but the best, but unfortunately I think that there's a relationship between the recruiting factoid noted above and what we are seeing on the field. If ECU finds itself recruiting more at the FCS level, then they should make it official, and step down accordingly.

ECU fans are much like NY Yankees fans this year, wait till next year and hope they can find a qb who can create some type of offense. I questioned why Gardner Webb was on our football schedule, now I know, that may be ECU’s only win this season. Just have to wait for baseball season, which has been ECU’s most consistent sport team through its past history.

NIL has made an uneven playing field. It’s not lack of coaching it’s lack of talent! Talent cos$$$, we don’t have it, end of story. At lease have salary cap to create the illusion that we can compete, ncaa ruined a beautiful thing!

The defense plays hard and is generally effective, but the offense's inability to do anything puts a lot of pressure on the d, and it wilts in the 4th quarter. The OL particularly has been just killing them, and the many play-calls off tackle that are doomed to failure aren't exactly helping, nor, last night, was the play-calling at the end of the 1st half, when ECU had clawed back to within 4, had the ball in a perfect 2-minute drill situation, and they went conservative, playing keep-away, instead of trying to get to at least within FG range. ...and yes, the Q situation is a big piece of the issue, but until the OL gets a lot better, it hardly matters who's under center. Coach rightly praised Sowell after his performance at wideout, but when he says "He’s just a redshirt freshman so he’s going to be here for a long time,” I have to wonder; why won't he leave early, like it seems so many other exceptionally talented Pirates do? The university released Montgomery after three seasons and a .250 winning percentage; when they brought in Coach Houston, they surely envisioned a far cry better than .442 after 5 1/2 seasons in.

Coach knows best. I think he has now determined who will be his steady QB.

Lack of talent

ECU is a 12 point dog; winning this one at home on national TV would go a long way to leaving a poor season start in the dirt.

I don’t suggest MG will come around. He does have better RPO skills. Flinn has better pocket presence. I’m saying alter the offensive set away from RPO for Flinn. I think he could be more effective from under center, with Harris and Bond in the I-form. I completely agree with you about MG coming in on the goal line. All that did was tell Rice that Garcia was going to run the ball.

Where the evidence that MG will come around? There is evidence that AF can do something if they can establish a run game to help him out. The Pirates' penchant this season for disappearing late in the game is becoming thematic; last night it happened particularly on offense. Bluntly, that move to replace AF with MG when they were driving (late in the first half, I think) was profoundly boneheaded; they ended up getting points only because of the pass interference call. ...totally inexplicable. Questions abound in Pirate Nation.

Sadly, this year is a bust. Too many “new” guys trying to find their way in a very competitive environment. The athletes ECU can recruit, by and large, require more time to climb the learning curve than major conference players. With that in mind, some thoughts on how to move forward. Alex Flinn clearly has some talent. And, he is a wonderful example of what a “student-athlete” should be. However, he’s also inexperienced at a position which exacts a high price for poor decision-making. You can’t just throw a screen pass because it “was called”. Unfortunately for the Pirates, and we fans, the situation isn’t going to change this season. The offensive line isn’t consistent enough to sustain Flinn through his learning curve, as the O-line has their own issues with inexperience. Let’s face it, Mason Garcia was supposed to be The RPO Guy. Big, strong, definitely a run threat, and has a howitzer for an arm. On paper, he had better credentials than Ahlers. Well, Garcia has been a bust. Not physically, but mentally. We knew mistakes would be made. But, I don’t think any of us thought “the moment” would be too big for him. Sadly, it seems to be. Unfortunately, the offense has been recruited to support and succeed with a QB like Garcia, not Flinn. Flinn is willing, but he doesn’t have the physical skill set possessed by Garcia. What we do have, is Javious Bond. He knows how to go north and south. The O-line has shown they can give him a seam to squeak through. Flinn, imo, could benefit from a quick-hitting, I-formation run attack, with Harris and Bond/Gunn/Edmonds behind him. Flinn could be a sneaky good pocket passer with Johnson, Sowell, and Calhoun to play pitch-and-catch in the short/medium range attack. Otherwise, bite the bullet, and play Garcia through his misery. Make the RPO work with the QB who is built for it. Defense… still a work in progress, with a few players who haven’t learned how to play under control. The Pirates must stay committed to the mission. Overall, the defense has progressed much further than the offense. Coaching decisions… so you choose to kick the field goal and not go for the first down on a 4th and two, inside the five yard line. Okay. Then you GO FOR IT on a 4th and goal, and don’t kick a field goal that would GIVE YOU A LEAD when the team really didn’t need to come up empty. As Arsenio Hall would say… HMMMM? Finally, can we PLEASE just kick the ball into the end zone on kickoffs. No more cutesy placement kicks, that somehow don’t get covered very well.

2-6 on 4th down is the main (and most unusual) stat on an otherwise ECU should win results sheet. I didn’t get to see the game, but that is a crazy number of times to go for it in a close game unless your punter got hurt. Rice was 0-0 on 4th down.

From my observation, it looked like ECU played well enough to win against Marshall and App state, until the fourth quarter. We obviously miss Holton and Harris from last year, but I thought that we had them covered. I hope we do not have a letdown against Rice. LET"S GO PIRATES!!!

I am cautiously optimistic after the Pirates shutdown of Garner-Webb. The weather dictated a mandate on taking care of the football, and the Pirates did that for the most part. Even the one fumble appeared to touch the Pirate receiver laying out of bounds, but Replay didn’t agree. The offense went about their business in a workmanlike manner, nothing flashy or spectacular. Semi-boring is good when you keep your side of the scoreboard dinging. Great job by the defense. G-W gave them a lot of help, and the “D” took advantage of it. I believe we’ve got a couple of winners in the secondary… but still to early to judge. Special teams were okay, but nothing to shout about. Bottom line, the Pirates did what they should have done. In a season where wins are going to be hard to come by, it’s a solid W. Enjoy it for a day - you earned it - and get back to work. Football gets tough again next week.

If you have 2 quarterbacks, you have none.

We should also consider our 3 opponents have a combined record of 7-1, and each is expected to be contending for their respective conference titles. They have not lost to low quality teams. Clean up the penalties, tighten up our blocking schemes, the quarterbacks start reading the field and hitting the open receivers instead of forcing into tight coverage, the O start possessing the ball to allow the D a chance to breath and this team should be just fine. These young men have never shown a tendency to quit. They deserve our patience and support as they grow. Also looking up. Arrrgh, GO PIRATES!