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Game
Slants
Saturday, September 22, 2012
By Denny O'Brien |
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Not much “Air” in ECU’s “Raid”
By
Denny O'Brien
©2012 Bonesville.net
All Rights Reserved.
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CHAPEL HILL — Four games
should provide enough time to establish an offensive identity. But after
East Carolina’s humbling 27-6 loss to North Carolina, the Pirates still find
themselves struggling to find one.
If you had to assign ECU an
offensive label at this stage of the season, disorganized and inconsistent
are the only options that fit.
For the second consecutive
week, the Pirates failed to crack 250 yards of total offense and struggled
to find any consistent rhythm. Outside of two scoring drives that concluded
with frustrating short field goals, ECU was largely out of sorts against a
young North Carolina defense.
That was especially true
following intermission when the Tar Heels blitzed Pirates quarterback Shane
Carden from the moment they exited the locker room. ECU looked completely
unprepared and never recovered from the barrage of pressure that fueled 14
quick points and put the game away.
“(Carden) was under duress,”
Pirates Coach Ruffin McNeill said after the game. “I’ll watch the film
tomorrow and be able to tell, but they did a good job being able to pressure
with four and defend. If you can do that against any offense and have seven
in coverage, then you’re going to be good.
"I saw them blitz and get to
us a little, so we’ll watch it tomorrow and see. Protection and decisions,
maybe we could have gotten rid of the ball a little quicker, we don’t know.
I’ll watch the film.”
Perhaps part of the issue with
ECU’s offense is that film is an apparent prerequisite to any improvement.
Any noticeable adjustments seem to occur during practice, not on the fly in
the middle of games.
The apparent inability to
formulate any about-face to in-game offensive strategy puts the Pirates’
personnel at a supreme disadvantage. On Saturday, it kept Carden firmly
planted in the turf for much of the day.
“We couldn’t finish drives,”
said Carden, who threw for 124 yards and suffered seven sacks. “We started
out the second quarter and we did well. We were driving the ball well. We
just couldn’t finish those drives. We do that, and we have two touchdowns.
"I think we kind of let them
get to us. They made some big plays, but we’ve got to answer with that.”
So do the coaches who are
responsible for putting Carden and his teammates in situations conducive to
success.
That didn’t seem to be the
case for most of the second half, when Carden ran the equivalent of three
miles avoiding the relentless Tar Heels rush. Those occasions when he hurled
the ball desperately into the seats marked some of the Pirates’ more
successful offensive efforts of the second half.
While some of the Pirates’
misfortune can certainly be traced to Carden’s overall inexperience, it’s
tough to pinpoint any specific adjustments intended to provide him with
needed assistance.
No designed dump offs. No max
protection formations. No presence of the shovel pass that has brought some
success this season.
Just a defenseless quarterback
with little time to properly run through progressions.
The 2010 arrival of the
vaunted Air Raid attack promised to usher in a record-setting era of
offensive football for ECU. It was met with enthusiasm from a fan base that
was growing somewhat unsatisfied with 21-17 wins.
For most of its inaugural
campaign, it did as designed, piling up yardage and points at an
unprecedented rate. But somewhere along the way, the ECU offense took a
U-turn, which to some degree can be attributed to inexperienced personnel.
Offensive coordinator Lincoln
Riley’s first offense included an NFL quarterback and receiver, and other
established players who spent time in professional camps. Some level of
decline can be expected with the loss of such key personnel.
But three years in with hardly
any coaching attrition, the ECU offense should have the look of a well-oiled
operation. Presently it has the resemblance of anything but.
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09/23/2012 02:45:42 AM |
