The Slants of the Game Sunday, October 15, 2006 By Denny O'Brien

Ugly Tulsa much better than flat Pirates

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GREENVILLE — There is a reason that Tulsa is the defending Conference USA champion. East Carolina again painfully discovered why in a 31-10 loss to the Golden Hurricane on Saturday.

Tulsa is the class of C-USA because it makes few mistakes and forces its opponents to commit many. And on the rare occasion when the Golden Hurricane does shoot itself in the foot, opponents struggle to take advantage of the opportunity given.

That certainly was the case for ECU.

"I certainly don't think that we put our best foot forward against a very good football team," East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said. "It's obvious why they're conference champs and Liberty Bowl champs, and why they're sitting on top of a pedestal right now in our conference.

"We didn't play very well. Defensively, I thought we played well in the first half. I thought we gave our offense some chances."

In what no doubt was the Pirates' most important outing to date, Tulsa taught ECU that good isn't always wrapped in a flashy package. That best describes a Golden Hurricane team that handled the Pirates with a gritty, sometimes punishing, blue collar effort.

Though it sputtered throughout much of the first half, the Tulsa offense caught fire before intermission and stayed lit the rest of the way. It did most of its damage with its all-conference quarterback handing the ball to a platoon of Hurricane rushers.

Little more was needed from Tulsa's Paul Smith. That's because the Hurricane's 234-yard ground attack was as efficient as it was boring. The case can even be made that it lulled the Pirates into a deep trance once they returned from intermission.

And they never woke up.

"(At halftime) guys were like, we just need to have some more energy about ourselves," senior left tackle Eric Graham said. "We never established any energy between us and the the whole team.

"It was just a flat day out there. You can't play a game when you're flat. It's hard to come up with a reason why we were flat."

Perhaps it's because the opponent lacked the appeal of the previous two that visited Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Or maybe it was because the crowd lacked emotion and at times seemed as disinterested in the game as the players they paid to watch.

Whatever the reason, the Pirates looked flatter than a corn tortilla.

"I talked to my staff on Monday about my only concern is an emotional letdown," Holtz said. "Because we played five emotional weeks.

"You've gone five weeks in a row where you've had to be on top of your game, where you've had to be at an emotional peak. I was worried about an emotional letdown. I can't tell you that's what this one was."

What Holtz can tell you is that the same productive offense that blasted Virginia appeared mostly dysfunctional against Tulsa. The Pirates didn't have much flash against C-USA's best, and flash is exactly what they needed.

With all-everything receiver Aundrae Allison again watching in denim and sneakers, East Carolina's vertical passing game was non-existent. Not only that, quarterback James Pinkney was rendered a non-factor against Tulsa's touted secondary.

That much was evident in the final offensive statistics, of which Pinkney accounted for only 92 yards through the air. If that wasn't telling enough, consider that Pinkney entered the fourth quarter with only 42 yards passing to his name.

You can bet ECU won't win any of its remaining games with a similar performance from its star quarterback. But on this day, Tulsa could have.

That reality was accurately reflected by the 21-point margin on the scoreboard.

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02/23/2007 02:03:47 AM