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Game
Slants
Thursday, September 5, 2013
By Denny O'Brien |
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ECU defense finds some black
magic
By
Denny O'Brien
©2012 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
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GREENVILLE — Maybe East
Carolina should have unveiled its black uniforms sooner.
Judging by the way the defense
performed in
the Pirates' 31-13 victory over Florida Atlantic
Thursday night, maybe their black gear rubbed a little magic into that often
criticized group. Given how it performed in the season opener, that theory
doesn't seem that big of a stretch.
The Pirates needed a defensive
lift given the degree to which the ECU offense sputtered against FAU. Aside
from touchdown drives of 81 and 67 yards, the Pirates never found much
offensive rhythm, thanks partially to seven penalties and two turnovers.
It was a night when East
Carolina took a couple of surprising steps forward on defense, followed by a
puzzling step back on offense.
Had the defense and special
teams not bailed the offense out, this one would have been far more
competitive than it was. Perhaps the midweek pep talk by senior safety Damon
Magazu lit a charge into the resurgent ECU D.
“One of our leaders, Magazu,
brought the defense together and had a meeting,” junior outside linebacker
Maurice Falls said. “We all agreed with that. We came out this week and had
fun.
“We made all of our
assignments and did our jobs. We wanted to force turnovers and get our
offense back on the field. When our offense is on the field, there's a good
chance we're going to score.”
There is little debate that
the offense the Pirates faced Thursday was a step back from Old Dominion.
The Owls lacked both the personnel and scheme of ODU, and the Pirates were
in complete control from the opening snap.
The Pirates brought pressure,
covered well, and demonstrated better ball pursuit. They collected six
sacks, forced three turnovers, and gave the offense favorable field position
throughout the game.
As for those third down
situations that were seemingly automatic for the Monarchs in the opener?
Completely different story this time around, as the Pirates controlled
possession plays throughout the night.
The end result was a defensive
performance that limited the Owls to only 282 yards, 124 of which occurred
in the fourth quarter after ECU had emptied its bench. The Owls' lone
touchdown came long after most had lost interest.
Credit defensive coordinator
Rick Smith for devising a sound game plan that grounded the Owls for most of
the night. He prepared a package of blitzes that sent defenders from
multiple angles and generated confusion for both FAU Qbs.
“Rick has been known for
takeaways,” Pirates coach Ruffin McNeill said. “Tonight, we did a good job
of that. We got three.
“It was big. If we can give
our offense two to three extra possessions, which we did tonight, that's
always a benefit to our football team.”
A critical one, too.
East Carolina's offense
managed only 312 yards on 64 plays, both numbers representing a significant
step back from the season opener. The Pirates also converted only five of 13
third down opportunities, and repeatedly demonstrated an inability to extend
drives.
If there was a glaring
defensive weakness Thursday, it was the Pirates' inability at times to bring
Owls quarterbacks to the ground when they otherwise had them corralled. It
resulted in several missed opportunities to produce negative yardage, though
it didn't inflict much damage to ECU.
But the Pirates can't afford
similar mistakes against better opponents, like the Virginia Tech team they
will face next week. The Hokies have far better personnel than FAU and most
likely will make similar mistakes bite ECU.
Given where the Pirates were
last week, Thursday night's errors seem more manageable for McNeill and his
staff. If East Carolina can make the same degree of improvement next week,
it has a legitimate chance of beating Virginia Tech — providing the offense
shows up.
The good news for ECU is that
the defense did Thursday night.
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09/06/2013 05:06:50 AM |
