David Blackwell is Getting His Defense Geared Up for Temple
When ECU takes on Temple on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field the Pirate defense will have to step up to the challenge.
The Owls score points both on defense and offense making getting stops on defense imperative.
Pirate defensive coordinator David Blackwell's unit continues to improve. ECU will get a solid test on Saturday and he hopes to have his group ready.
"Right now is the consistency and with the amount of pressure we can generate and the things we can do, we can't bust a coverage and give up a cheap touchdown. We can't bust a run and give up a cheap touchdown," Blackwell told PI, "Those are the things. We gave up 14 free points in that game where we were in calls where we should be able to handle those plays so our thing right now is to make people earn it."
"If we can make people earn it we've proven to be pretty tough to drive the field on. If we can not give up the easy plays and the quick plays we're going to have a chance to be in every game I think."
Blackwell outlined what gets his attention most about Temple offensively.
"They're big and physical up front. The running back is an outstanding player. The tight end is probably the best one we've played against," said Blackwell, "They've got skill at receiver. They've been banged up at quarterback and they've played three different ones but they're all in their own way effective. They kind of have a package that they use for the one kid and the other two are bigger more traditional quarterbacks."
"I think week in and week out in this conference you're not going to play bad offenses, so every offense we play can put up points and attack you in different ways. From here on out it's big boy football and you have to be ready to show up every week."
ECU has shown great improvement defensively from being right at the bottom in the league to upper to middle of the pack currently in most categories. That gives Blackwell encouragement that the best could be yet to come.
"I think we'll see on Saturday. They present problems like all teams do but I like out guys and I've said that from the time I got here in the spring. Our talent level is better than they are given credit for being and if we continue to grow and work, it's still early and we've got to go out and prove it every week. Temple is the next one on the schedule and the most important one because they're the next one so we've got to show up and be ready to play."
Game time is at 12 noon on Saturday on ESPNews for AAC action between Temple and ECU from Lincoln Financial Field.
