East Carolina-Navy Recap: Midshipmen rushing attack too much for Pirates

CUSA-fans.com has a new staff of team correspondents this fall to help bring you, the fan, more detailed Conference USA football coverage. Today, our ECU Correspondent Thomas "Bubba" Rosenbaum recaps the East Carolina Pirates trip to Navy where they fell 28-23.

The Navy offense had a new field general in senior Brian Hampton, but the Midshipmen rushing machine didn't skip a beat in the opener. Hampton ran for 149 yards on 34 carries. When he wasn't slicing through or running around the Pirates' defense, Adam Ballard, Reggie Campbell or someone else was.

East Carolina knew that it was going to be very difficult to slow down Navy's flexbone triple-option attack period, but particularly given the fact that they were going to be playing some young and inexperienced linebackers.

Entering the game, I expected Navy to have some early success while the Pirates got their feet wet defensively and that is just what happened. Navy scored on its first possession, going 86 yards in 13 plays while taking 4:39 off the clock.

Despite trailing 7-0 after the first quarter, the game was going, as the Pirates needed it to go from a ball control standpoint. The East Carolina offense was very efficient, converting four of five third down conversions, which helped it control the ball for 10:21 of the opening 15 minutes. James Pinkney was very sharp as he distributed the ball to numerous receivers and would continue to do so as the game progressed.

The Pirates' second drive ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Roach, capping a 10-play, 80-yard drive, which knotted the game at seven.

On Navy's next possession, the ECU defense came up big, forcing Navy's lone three and out of the night. Pinkney and the East Carolina offense stayed hot as they went 68 yards in eight plays, a drive that ended with Chris Johnson scoring from three yards out to give the Pirates a 14-7 lead with 8:48 left in the first half.

The Midshipmen would respond with a 13-play, 61-yard drive of their own, but came up empty-handed as they missed a 37-yard field goal after the drive stalled at the East Carolina 20-yard line.

The all-important "MO" had just taken a big turn toward East Carolina, as they were going to have an opportunity to take at least a 14-7 lead into the locker room.

However, as quickly as the momentum had shifted their way, it swung back to Navy when the Middies recovered a Bobby Good fumble following a first down completion that would have gained five yards. It appeared that Good's forward progress had been stopped, as Holtz mentioned after the game, but "delayed whistles" are a point of emphasis with officials this season.

Following the turnover, Navy did what good teams do, and converted the opportunity into a touchdown, tying the game at 14 with just 1:18 remaining in the opening half.

The first half went as many thought with neither team really stopping the other that well. The play of the half was undoubtedly the fumble which led to the game tying score because if Navy didn't force that fumble, the Pirates would likely have been leading by at least seven at the break. The score was that much bigger when you take into consideration that Navy would be receiving the kickoff to start the second half.

Brian Hampton and the Navy offense were presented with great field position to start the second half following a squib kick that was returned to the Navy 42. Six plays later, they reached pay dirt. The drive featured big runs by Hampton and White before Ballard put the Middies ahead with a 16-yard run.

East Carolina, desperately needing to give its defense a break and time to talk things over, answered with a 10-play, 49-yard drive, which was capped by Lou Groza Award candidate Robert Lee drilling a 48-yard field goal into the wind. The Pirates now trailed 21-17.

On Navy's next possession, ECU forced a third down and ten play, on which Hampton ran for eight yards, giving Paul Johnson the opportunity to go for it on fourth down. Johnson, knowing that he has had the Pirates on their heels for the majority of the night, opted to go. Hampton converted, and the Middies moved into the red zone looking to take a two-score advantage.

Needing a stand, East Carolina's Jamar Flournoy forced a fumble on first down and ten at the Pirates 20 and redshirt freshman Van Eskridge recovered.

ECU was unable to do anything with the turnover, going three and out, and giving the ball to Navy in good field position at the ECU 39 following a 15-yard Jason Tomlinson punt return.

On the next play from scrimmage, Hampton started to his right on the option, but when he started to pitch the football, East Carolina's Van Eskridge made an excellent play. Eskridge slapped the ball and it shot about 15 yards across the field toward the Navy sideline. It appeared that he would scoop the ball up and score easily, but as he was picking the ball up, he began to stumble and went down at the Navy 46 yard line after returning it six yards.

Now the Pirates had great field position and an opportunity to take the lead, but from there they would go backwards. Following a holding penalty and a sack, ECU was faced with third and 29 from its own 35. Pinkney found Phillip Henry on the sideline for 21 yards. Henry was hit about five yards out of bounds, but no late hit call was made.

The Pirates were forced to punt and Ray Guy Award candidate Ryan Dougherty hung it up beautifully, pinning the Midshipmen at their seven-yard line with 31 seconds left in the third quarter.

Hampton and the Midshipmen offense then produced just what it needed, a 16-play, 93-yard touchdown drive that ate up nearly half of the fourth quarter. Navy's biggest gain on the drive was ten yards, but gaining six to eight yards a pop, they were consistently in favorable down and distances.

Holtz and the Pirates now had their work cut out for them, facing an 11-point deficit at 28-17 with only eight minutes left. However, senior James Pinkney and the Pirate offense rose to the challenge. The drive covered 87 yards in 11 plays, ending on a 10-yard touchdown pass to Phillip Henry.

Down 28-23, the Pirates naturally went for two. The conversion attempt appeared to be good as Pinkney rolled out of the pocket and found Steven Rogers in the back of the endzone. However, Rogers was whistled for illegal touching, as he had ran out of bounds, making him an ineligible receiver on the play.

Perhaps lost in the two-point conversion attempt was the fact that ECU burned one of its three timeouts, meaning that it would have one less in attempting to get the ball back.

With the deficit still at five and a worn down defense, Holtz felt it was in the Pirates' best interest to attempt the onside kick with 4:57 to play. Dougherty gave the Pirates the perfect kick, as it took a huge hop and looked to be headed toward ECU's Kevin Roach on the sideline. Roach, unable to catch the ball, batted it back into play. The whistle was blown, but the officials then conferred and decided that the whistle was inadvertent meaning that the Pirates would get another chance to try the onsides.

Navy recovered the second onsides attempt and proceeded to run out the clock after East Carolina failed to stop them on fourth and less than a yard at the Pirate 14.

Entering the game, the Pirates primary weaknesses were expected to be along the offensive line and at linebacker. Those were seen in that the ECU linebackers often seemed to hesitate a split second, which is all it takes for an attack like Navy to exploit you. Offensively, the line protected James Pinkney well for the first time out, allowing only one sack. However, ECU wasn't able to muster much of a rushing attack, particularly in the second half. The Pirates only ran for 29 yards after the break, which made it more difficult to keep the ball out of Navy's hands and keep them from chewing up the clock.

In 2005, East Carolina did a poor job on third down, offensively and defensively. Against Navy, you could tell that James Pinkney and the Pirate offense had a better grasp on their system as they executed well, converting 8 of 13 third downs. Defensively, the same success wasn't seen, as the Middies converted 6 of 11 third down attempts.

The kicking game was as solid as expected with Ryan Dougherty placing three of his four punts inside the 20-yard line. Robert Lee made all three point after touchdown attempts, and also banged in a 48-yard field goal off the left upright.

In sum, East Carolina and Navy took part in a very well played, crisp contest for an opening game. There were only five penalties combined between the two teams, with ECU being flagged three times and Navy being penalized twice.

Also, the ECU offense often appeared to be in mid-season form with success at which it converted third downs and executed in key situations. Pinkney distributed the football to nine different receivers. He was 24 of 35 for 285 yards and two touchdowns. Pirate star receiver Aundrae Allison finished the day with six receptions for 86 yards.

Despite the loss, the Pirates should be encouraged with the way they competed in the opener at Navy against a Midshipmen team that has 35 seniors from teams that have won 26 games in the last three seasons as well as 14 in a row at Navy Marine-Corps Memorial Stadium.