ECU drops regular-season finale to Navy, 34-20; bowl game is next

by | Nov 29, 2024

By ECUPirates.com

Senior Day and Blake Harrell‘s first official game as East Carolina’s head coach hardly turned out as planned.

Showing signs of a post-Thanksgiving hangover, the Pirates missed numerous early opportunities and paid dearly in the second half as long-time nemesis Navy seized control and rolled to a 34-20 win in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The loss not only spoiled the day for 22 ECU seniors but dealt Harrell his first loss after a 4-0 record as interim head coach. In ending the Pirates’ four-game win streak, Navy stayed unbeaten in six trips to Greenville and now leads the overall series 10-2.

On the positive side, ECU (7-5, 5-3 American Athletic Conference) still has one game to play with a bowl opponent to be announced on Dec. 8.

“It definitely does suck to lose on Senior Night, but we’ve got a bowl game coming up,” senior defensive back Omar Rogers said after chalking up a career-high 14 tackles. “That’s the true last one so we’re going to keep preparing for that and try to make things happen.”

The Pirates certainly made things happen during their four-game run but never got clicking against the Midshipmen (8-3, 6-2 AAC). ECU came in with its offense at full throttle, averaging 45.75 points, 542.5 yards and 236.5 yards since Harrell took the helm, putting up four consecutive games with at least 220 yards rushing and 500 total yards.

Navy limited ECU to 129 yards rushing and 348 total yards.

Quarterback Katin Houser, a big-play producer since taking over as the starter at quarterback, struggled mightily in first half, misfiring on a couple of long passes and completing just 3 of 11 for 29 yards. He finished 20 of 36 for 219 yards, with 84 of those coming on the final drive when the game had been decided.

The explosive plays were particularly absent. ECU did connect on a pass of more than 20 yards until Houser’s 52-yard touchdown strike to Yannick Smith with just 1:30 to play. The usually methodical Midshipmen produced 10 plays of at least 15 yards with seven of those coming in the second half when they took control.

Navy scored on runs of 36 and 38 yards and a 61-yard pass after being shut out in the first half.

“We just missed some opportunities early in the game that could have changed the game the other way,” Harrell said. “And then we let some plays in the second half they hit let the game get away from us a little bit.”

A first quarter that ended with ECU up 3-0 truly was a story of missed opportunities on both sides. The Pirates pushed inside the 10 twice in the first quarter, turning the ball over on downs and missing a field goal, while only getting three points after forcing a fumble at the Navy 16.

The Midshipmen failed on two fourth-down tries – one at the ECU 16 – and ended the half with a missed field goal from 21 yards.

“You get down there a couple of times in the first quarter and don’t get any points out of it,” Harrell said. “You can’t do that to a good football team. … You’ve got to capitalize on those things.”

Senior running back Rahjai Harris, who finished with a team-high 88 yards on 18 carries, echoed those thoughts.

“We missed a lot of opportunities the first half, I could say at least 21 points the first half we just left out there on the field,” Harris said. “It definitely came back and kicked us in the tail in the second half. You can’t miss opportunities against a Navy team like that.

The Pirates’ defense did its job in the first holding Navy scoreless – a first this year, holding Navy to 2-for-9 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down.

A solid hit by Michael Edwards III on Navy’s opening drive stopped Brandon Chatman one yard short on a fourth-and-3 run from the ECU 38.

The Pirates then turned to Harris and picked up the tempo, moving to the Navy 3 in six plays. But after a second-down penalty, Harris gained 4 yards before Houser’s toss to Tyler Savage in the back of the end zone sailed high.

ECU, after excellent field position following a short punt and 15-yard return by Ja’Marley Riddle, missed another opportunity inside the 10 on its next possession. The Pirates lined up for a fourth-and-2 play, but a penalty was followed by Andrew Conrad’s miss of a 30-yard field goal.

Conrad cashed in his next chance, knocking through a 35-yarder after Sam Dankah blind-sided third-string quarterback Jackson Gutierrez and forced a fumble that TyMir Brown scooped up at the 16.

That stood until the second half when Navy’s offense began churning out yardage and eating up time.

The Midshipmen opened the third quarter with a 14-play, 67-yard drive that drained 7:57 off the clock and ended with Brandon Chatman’s 16-yard run on a jet sweep.

Navy would score on five of six second-half possessions, consistently making clutch plays to keep drives alive. Led by quarterback Brandon Woodson, Navy converted 6 of 8 third downs in the second half while piling up 298 total yards.

Woodson finished with a career-high of 125 yards rushing on 15 carries and scored two touchdowns while also throwing for 165 yards and a score.

“In the first half I thought we did a really good job, getting off the field on third down, making some plays, creating a turnover down there to set up a score, did all those things we needed to do in the first half to play really good defense,” Harrell said. “The second half I thought it was really the third downs. We had opportunities probably on all those scoring drives to get off the field.”

Rogers said the defense may have lost focus after being on the field so long.

“The key word for the week was discipline,” he said. “I thought in the first half we did very good with our discipline and got a lot of stops. Really just keeping your eyes on the keys. We did a real good for that in the first half with that and in the second half we kind of slacked off on that.”

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