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Game
Slants
Saturday, August 31, 2013
By Denny O'Brien |
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Defense has miles to go
By
Denny O'Brien
©2012 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
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GREENVILLE — Maybe Brian
Mitchell wasn’t the problem with the East Carolina defense.
That’s one conclusion that can
be drawn from the Pirates’ 52-38 victory over Old Dominion. The Monarchs, in
a transition year before becoming a full-fledged FBS member, carved up an
ECU defense for 460 yards and at times seemed unchallenged.
ODU quarterback Taylor
Heinicke kept the Pirates off balance for much of the night, inflicting
significant damage both with his right arm and nimble feet. He finished with
338 yards passing, 52 yards rushing, and accounted for four scores.
It was a one-man Monarch show
that threatened an upset but ECU didn't fold under pressure.
“We hung in there,” Pirates
coach Ruffin McNeill said. “From the very beginning, I said that Bobby
(Wilder) does a great job of coaching. The only ones who didn’t say that
were maybe somebody outside of the program.
“We watch film. We knew that
Taylor (Heinicke) was a great quarterback and has the ability to extend
plays.”
And it didn’t take long to
recognize that. By the time the first half ended, Heinicke had thrown for
nearly 200 yards, two touchdowns, and rushed for 30 more.
His quarterback rating at
intermission? Only 188.6. Not exactly steel curtain stuff.
Outside of a scoop and score
by linebacker Ty Holmes and a late three and out, it didn’t get much better
in the second half. The Monarchs found little resistance from the ECU
defense, regardless of the down, distance, or score.
First and ten? The Monarchs
regularly gained seven.
Third and long? ODU just went
longer.
It was perplexing given the
number of defensive returnees and the changes to the defensive staff. New
defensive coordinator Rick Smith was a catalyst to the Pirates’ defensive
resurgence during the Skip Holtz era, and many were betting on a sudden 180.
That obviously didn’t occur,
nor should it have been the expectation. Despite any schematic issues the
Pirates might have had during Mitchell’s time at ECU, the Pirates weren’t
exactly manufacturing NFL defensive talent.
Especially in the secondary.
The Pirates have an obvious void of talent there. So much so that it’s too
bad quarterback Shane Carden and receiver Justin Hardy can’t pull double
duty and give the defense a little help.
All that tandem did Saturday
was register their best games in an ECU uniform. Carden finished with 447
yards passing and five scores, with Hardy snagging 16 of his throws for 191
yards.
If there is a bright side to
ECU’s defensive performance, it’s that Heinicke won’t be visiting
Dowdy-Ficklen again. The rest of the quarterbacks who visit should be easier
to corral, and probably won’t possess the same degree of poise.
“The whole defense needs to
improve,” Pirates safety Damon Magazu said. “We need to run to the ball a
little bit better. I think we need to create more turnovers.
"We did score tonight, but we
only had one turnover. We did have a fourth down stop, so I guess that
counts. We need to get more three and outs and get the ball back to our
offense. As you can see, they can put up points.”
Lots of them. But at some
point this season — probably sooner rather than later — ECU can’t expect
that its offense will just score at will.
The difference between simply
making a bowl and winning a Conference USA championship isn’t dependent upon
offensive improvement.
Success this season clearly
will be determined by how quickly ECU can knock the rust off its defense.
View box score and statistics on ecupirates.com
(PDF)
Read game recap on ecupirates.com
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09/01/2013 05:38:24 AM |
