With Navy coming up on Saturday, ECU continues their preparation for the Midshipmen. Offensively, Donnie Kirkpatrick will be looked upon to cook something up that will put points on the scoreboard and better the Pirates’ chances of picking up their second win of the season.
If ECU can win, it will send a message to the rest of the league that the Pirates are back. To do so requires an ability to slow the Navy option, but if ECU can score a bunch of points, that will also change the way Navy plays on offense to a certain degree.
Kirkpatrick talked about where his offense is in the big scheme coming out of their first win against Gardner-Webb and heading into Annapolis.
“We did some things better and we did some things worse. I thought the energy was better and we ran harder with the ball and caught and threw the ball better,” said Kirkpatrick, “We played with more energy. We chased the ball, made bigger plays but at the same time we had a couple of motion penalties, we had some cadence issues. We didn’t have that in the first game. It’s a work in progress right now.”
“We’ve got a huge challenge this week. It’s like you know - one bed was too hard, one bed was maybe too soft and hopefully this bed is going to be just right,” Kirkpatrick stated, “This is our level, this is our league, this is who you’ve got to be as good as to reach your goals.”
There are ramifications to winning and losing for AAC league purposes and if ECU can come away with a victory, it changes the dynamic conference wise and league wide.
“If we come home on that flight and we’re at least tied for first place, you guys would have something to write about, something to print, something to talk about for sure,” Kirkpatrick told PirateIllustrated.com, “Right now we’re not talking about the result end - we’re talking about the process with the kids to play well. If you play well, I think you have a chance to win.”
Controlling the football does help control Navy’s offense at least a little bit so look for ECU to do some of that partly because they aren’t that explosive yet anyway.
“I do think we do want to control the ball. We want to be balanced. By balanced we want to be able to do either one - throw or run equally well so we can do what the defense is giving us a little bit.”
“I think we do always want to control the ball and have a high time of possession and certainly against Navy is the limited number of possessions. They play slow. They’ll eat the clock up and you won’t get it back much,” Kirkpatrick reiterated, “But if you turn it over, it’s REALLY, really crucial. If you go out there and go three-and-out then your defense is really going to be hurting.”
Kirkpatrick outlined what Navy does defensively that East Carolina will really have to try to combat as an offense on Saturday.
“Navy has got a great team defense. Individually, there is probably not a lot of guys who get notoriety or stick out necessarily but what they do is keep the ball in front of you,” Kirkpatrick told PI on Wednesday.
“They make you almost play that kind of game where you have to put a lot of plays together to get points. They bend, they don’t break. They’re a three down scheme. Three down schemes bring a lot of multiplicity. A lot of stunts, a lot of different blitzes. They’ve got a really good blitz package and a really, really good fake blitz package that you’ve got to be concerned with.”
Game time is scheduled for 3:30 in Annapolis for ECU - Navy on CBS Sports Network television.
PI AUDIO: ECU OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR DONNIE KIRKPATRICK TALKS NAVY
