ECU Falls to (7)Cincinnati 55-17
Desmond Ridder had his way under center, passing for 327 yards and three touchdowns and (7)Cincinnati strolled to a 55-17 AAC win over ECU Friday night in Nippert Stadium.
Ridder, who found eleven different receivers on the evening, also led his team in rushing with 75 yards along with 75 more from Cam Smith. Ridder threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns by intermission and ran for another to give the 7-0 Bearcats a comfortable 35-10 cushion by halftime.
By contrast, ECU(1-6) had their chances but ran into a difficult time trying to score points behind a depleted offensive line that gave Holton Ahlers next to no time to throw the football. That helped lead to three interceptions on the night.
Ahlers was limited to a career low 87 yards through the air and no touchdowns on just 9 of 20 passing. He was sacked four times and found himself in a hurry for much of the evening which did not give receiver patterns enough time to formulate in many instances.
"We've got to be able to protect him better, that's obvious to everybody," ECU head coach Mike Houston told PirateIllustrated.com after the game, "I think we've got some guys who are competing very hard. We've got to continue to be creative in our protections. It's one of those things where everybody this time of year is having to shuffle some people around. We'll get back to work tomorrow and do what we can to come up with a great game plan for next week."
"The first one I did think he knew what was there, he tried to look it off a little bit and he missed a dropper and the guy slipped right in front of him. The second one, he forced it, plain and simple. The last one with the coverage where it was, he's got to put it deeper in the end zone there on the corner route to Snead. With the corner sitting right there you have to throw it towards the back pilon."
One bright spot for the Pirates was the play of running back Keaton Mitchell who rushed for a career high 124 yards on 17 carries, good for 7.3 yards a clip. Rahjai Harris added 84 yards on the ground for East Carolina. No Pirate receiver had more than two catches on the night.
“Keaton Mitchell is a very talented player. Just like I talked about Rahjai (Harris) a couple of weeks ago, we really like those guys as a one-two punch of the future and obviously he did some really good things tonight,” said Houston.
All told, Cincinnati generated 653 yards of total offense to just 291 from ECU in a game that proved to never be close.
Juan Powell stepped into the defensive secondary after Warren Saba went out with an injury and led all tacklers for the Pirates with eight stops including six solo tackles.
Linebacker Bruce Bivens recorded six tackles before being ejected on a close targeting call on a special teams tackle where he appeared to lead with his shoulder pads but the two helmets still made contact.
“I’m obviously disappointed with the outcome of the game, it’s not what we came up here to do. Cincinnati is a very good football team and I think they’re easily the best team we’ve played all year,” Houston said, “We made some mistakes that you can’t make against a good team if you’re going to have a shot. Certainly we were aggressive with some things and tried to come in and try to play the game in order to win it. Very disappointed in the outcome though.”
“My players, I still believe in them completely. They’re young and they did a lot of good things tonight but they made too many mistakes against a good team,” said Houston, “It’s my job to get it fixed, that’s why I was brought here and that’s what we’re going to work to do.”
The Pirates missed a chance to capitalize when Cincinnati seemed to fumble early in the game. Then a Desmond Ridder fumble on a handoff to Gerrid Doaks gave ECU the football back with two minutes to go in the first quarter, but Cincinnati immediately flipped the script when Jarell White turned an interception of a Holton Ahlers pass on first down into a touchdown to expand the Bearcat lead to 14-0.
“Hopefully the breaks are going to start bouncing our way here eventually,” said Houston, “You can’t make that mistake there, especially that deep in our own territory. That’s the mistakes that you can’t make. Not against a team like this. I thought we had the fumble on the first drive, obviously that one got overturned. Our group did a good job and forced another turnover.”
SCORING SUMMARY
Michael Young got Cincinnati on the scoreboard first six minutes into the game on a 33 yard touchdown strike from Desmond Ridder to cap a ten play, 79-yard drive for an early 7-0 lead.
Jarell White turned an interception of Holton Ahlers’ pass on first down into a touchdown as the Bearcat lead grew to 14-0.
ECU finally got on the scoreboard with 10:36 to go in the half on an 18-yard Keith Mitchell touchdown scamper around left end that cut the Cincinnati lead to 14-7.
Cincinnati scored their third touchdown of the evening when Jerome Ford zipped past the ECU defense for 24 yards and 21-7 Bearcat cushion.
Jake Verity’s 32-yard field goal got ECU a little closer at 21-10 with 5:25 to go before halftime.
Two plays later Desmond Ridder burned ECU defensive back Juan Powell on a wide open pass to Tre Tucker for a 45-yard touchdown and a 28-10 lead.
Holton Ahlers was intercepted on the first play of the next ECU drive when he forced a pass into double coverage at midfield. Cincinnati then converted the turnover into a seven-yard Desmond Ridder touchdown run and a 35-10 lead halftime lead.
Cincinnati scored late in the third quarter to extend the lead to 42-10 on Jayshon Jackson’s twelve yard touchdown catch from Ridder.
The Bearcats then parlayed an unnecessary fake punt on fourth down into an eventual touchdown as the score grew to 49-10 on a one-yard Jerome Ford touchdown run with 5:41 to play.
Mason Garcia got in late in the contest and engineered one ECU scoring drive when Rahjai Harris scored from one yard in a 49-17 contest.
Instead of taking a knee late, Cincinnati scored one last time on a 75-yard Cameron Young touchdown run with just ten seconds to play.
