Cardon Johnson ran for 265 yards including two 80-plus yard touchdowns, Bryan Schor threw for 192 yards and a touchdown and ran for another as James Madison pounded East Carolina 34-14 Saturday night in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
The Dukes lit ECU up like a Christmas tree for 614 total yards of offense including 422 yards on the ground alone. Marcus Marshall added 88 yards on the ground from his running back position including a 77-yard scamper for another touchdown.
But it was Cardon who generated the bulk of JMU's offense running up the middle. He did a boat load of damage on just 17 carries and the Pirates had no answer for it defensively.
The Pirates have not won a game since last October and after the game, second year ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery talked about some of the ingredients that led to what was clearly a stinging home opening defeat. It's been since 1980 since ECU lost it's only game to a lower division team in a 28-16 defeat to Eastern Kentucky. Saturday night's loss snapped a 25-game win streak against FCS opponents.
"Clearly disappointed in the way we performed today, especially with the kind of camp that we had, the kind of spring that we've had," Montgomery said, "We give a lot of credit to JMU. They played well offensively and defensively - special teams and all around. They outplayed us."
"The biggest issue is we didn't play well in the offensive front at all. It kind of started right from the get-go. We put more balls on the ground snapping the ball than I've ever been a part of whether it was the practice here in the spring, the fall, all of that combined, said Montgomery.
There was plenty of blame to spread around for the Pirates who continue to search for answers to some of the most basic of fundamentals.
"It started on offense and that led into our quarterback play offensively. That wasn't very good. We didn't do the things we were supposed to do with the football in a lot of situations," according to Montgomery, "We rolled opposite of the route and got flushed out of the pocket. A lot of times we got into some long situations and our receivers bailed us out a few times with their talent. But all and all we didn't do what we needed to do. We didn't run the ball effectively at all."
JMU held the ball five minutes longer than the Pirates and produced 13 first downs in the first half while holding ECU to just 24 first half rushing yards and only 114 through the air.
ECU quarterback Gardner Minshew was held to just 7 of 18 through the air for 82 yards and one interception before being lifted for Thomas Sirk. The Duke transfer came on to hit on 21 of 35 for 210 yards but even Sirk threw a pair of interceptions.
"We've just got to be better on offense and when we have opportunities to score, we've got to take advantage of those opportunities," Sirk told PirateIllustrated.com.
Minshew was clearly disappointed after the game and he talked about his performance.
"I'm just really disappointed because we had opportunities there and we missed them. They're a good team but we had our chances and we didn't take advantage of them."
Montgomery has positive things to say about the spark that Sirk provided but it's still a work in progress and the hill doesn't get any easier to climb from here for ECU.
"Thomas, when he came in, I thought he gave us a big boost and a little bit of energy. The kid tried to will us to score some touchdowns on some drives. He had some poor throws where he had some good matchups that he just didn't complete."
The Pirates got good production on seven catches apiece from wideouts Davon Grayson and Deondre Farrier and 154 yards between the two. But the ECU receiver corp was kept out of the endzone all evening despite 172 yards in penalties from James Madison.
With the loss, the Pirates face an uphill climb starting next week when they venture into Morgantown to take on West Virginia before returning home to host Virginia Tech.
