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Steve Logan has said all year that it’s not a matter of
effort. East Carolina's coach says this team has played well defensively at
times, especially in the Tulane game. At other time, however, it's a
different matter altogether.
“When we beat Tulane, everybody thought it was just an okay
win,” recalled Logan of ECU's 24-20 win over the Green Wave on September 14.
“But now, that looks like a pretty good victory.”
Tulane is 3-3 in Conference USA and 6-4 overall.
“We played very well defensively in that game,” said Logan.
“What happened? I don’t know, but I do know that we can play solid defense.”
Outside linebacker coach Ted Daisher says it’s all about
alignment.
“When we get guys in the right spots, and they do what they
are coached to do, our defense does very well,” Daisher said. “It’s just
that we are so inexperienced in key spots. We have talent, and I think we
have outstanding players.”
The Pirates are going to have to step it up on defense to
win on Saturday against UAB.
The Blazers aren’t an offensive juggernaut, but neither was
Houston. Logan, offensive coordinator Doug Martin and the offense are
getting the job done.
The defense doesn’t have to win the game on Saturday, but it
does have to play well enough to give the offense a chance.
Pirates, TCU stand alone at
top
Louisville’s comeback win over Southern Mississippi on
Thursday night was big for East Carolina. Now the Pirates and Texas
Christian are the only two teams in the league with just one conference
loss.
TCU is off this week, while the Pirates make that trip to
Birmingham to meet UAB.
So, despite all of the problems on defense, the inexperience
at quarterback, the plague of turnovers early on — and despite a 3-5 record
after 8 games — East Carolina is still very much in the picture in the
Conference USA title chase.
Stranger things have happened.
Louisville and Southern Miss certainly didn’t put on the
kind of show that would prompt the BCS folks to take notice.
Dave Ragone took another pounding, but had enough to lead
the Cardinals to the victory.
Funny thing, for all of the Pirate problems this year, ECU
is the least penalized team in Division I-A. Coach Logan jokes that his team
doesn’t hit anyone hard enough to get penalized.
I say that this team has shown great discipline in some
aspects of the game this year. We haven’t seen the late hits, the jumping
off sides, the penalties that really hurt both Louisville and Southern Miss
on Thursday night.
Here’s hoping the Pirates put an end to the “Alabama Jinx”
this weekend, and return home for a C-USA title tilt with TCU!
