Tulane found success through the air early and often and that helped generate a three touchdown halftime lead and created ample separation on the scoreboard. The Green Wave then cruised to a 38-21 win Saturday in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
With the loss, ECU fell to 1-5 overall including 1-4 in AAC play while Tulane improved to .500 at 4-4 and 2-4 in league play.
Michael Pratt threw for 216 yards in a balanced Tulane offense and Cam Carroll rushed for 129 yards on just six carries including a pair of touchdowns of 48 and 28 yards to lead a Green Wave ground attack that churned up 277 yards on the day.
Jha’Quan Jackson and Duce Watts both accounted for 57 yards in receptions with Watts scoring on a pair of touchdowns including a 35-yard strike from Pratt that gave Tulane a quick seven point lead.
The Pirates had their chances though with Holton Ahlers throwing for 351 yards including a pair of touchdowns to Blake Proehl including a career high 75-yarder and another touchdown to Tyler Snead, but in the end, the Green Wave shut down ECU’s run game to the tune of just 35 yards. Rahjai Harris was limited to 27 yards rushing on just 13 attempts.
“They’ve got some dudes up front. Those two ends are as good as anyone in the league and we knew that going in,” Ahlers told PirateIllustrated.com afterward, “We knew that we’d have to get the ball out quick or get some help there. I thought overall we just have to move the ball better in the first half. We had a good fourth quarter, we just have to build with that.”
“I think at halftime we were one for six on third downs and we preach and practice third downs more than probably anyone in the country. Then we missed a fourth down too. Third and fourth down - you’ve got to win there. They were winning theirs and we weren’t winning ours and that is kind of what it came down to.”
Linebacker Bruce Bivins led the ECU defense with 13 stops including three behind the line of scrimmage and safety Warren Saba had his moments too adding nine tackles including a sack, but overall Tulane had their way with 493 yards of total offense to just 386 overall for the Pirates.
Saba talked about some of the things his group needed to do better in order to find more success defensively.
“Communication and execution are the big things. If we do those things, you see how we can play on that side of the ball,” Saba told PirateIllustrated.com, “We’ve just got to get back to those things.”
ECU head coach Mike Houston expressed disappointment at a time when the Pirates could have really used a victory after the way things went in Tulsa last week in an increasingly difficult AAC.
“I thought Tulane played really well. They are a very good football team and just the kind of team I expected from Coach Fritz,” said Mike Houston afterward, “I thought they did a really good job up front on both sides of the football and it was just one of those games where it was going to be just so tight and so competitive.”
Houston outlined some of the plays that he felt stood out and in the end made the most difference for Tulane.
“Not getting the first down when I went for it on fourth down in the first half obviously gave them good field position,” said Houston, “They capitalized on that and I thought the missed field goal that gave them really good field position in the second quarter - they were able to capitalize on that. They got the momentum there going into the half.”
Things did not get any easier from there for ECU, spending most of the day having to come from behind on the scoreboard.
“We struggled coming out of the locker room in the third quarter to get the momentum back. I did think our kids began to fight at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth and got us back in the ballgame and back to where it was a two-score game,” Houston said.
“We had our chances, we had a turnover, didn’t get it on fourth down, we get the onside kick and get stripped. You’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities because you’re not going to get many against a solid ball team like that.”
ECU returns to action next Saturday when they travel to (6)Cincinnati for a 7:30 p.m. Friday night game on ESPN2.
SCORING SUMMARY
Tulane opened with five straight passes on offense before Duce Watts scored on a wide open 35-yard strike from Michael Pratt to give Tulane an early 7-0 lead.
ECU answered with a 10-yard Holton Ahlers to Tyler Snead touchdown pass midway into the first quarter to tie the score at 7-7 to cap a 10-play, 75-yard drive.
Cam Carroll’s 44-yard run up the middle led to a five yard Tyrick James touchdown pass from Michael Pratt and a 14-7 Tulane lead.
Tulane’s five-yard touchdown with 38 seconds to go in the half from Pratt to Duce Watts capped a seven play, 65 yard drive to give the Green Wave a 21-7 halftime lead.
Cameron Carroll’s 48-yard scamper up the middle for a touchdown grew the Green Wave lead to 28-7. Then Tulane scored again on a 42-yard Merek Glover field goal as the Green Wave lead expanded to 31-7 with 38 seconds left in the third quarter.
Ja'Quan McMillan’s interception for ECU with 12:30 remaining led to a 30-yard Ahlers to Blake Proehl touchdown strike and the subsequent two-point pass to Proehl trimmed the Tulane lead to 31-15.
Tulane’s touchdown on a Cam Carroll 28-yard touchdown run up the middle with 5:17 to go put the game out of reach in a 37-15 contest.
Ahlers did manage to find Blake Proehl on a career long 75-yard strike, but the two-point conversion effort was no good to make the score 38-21.
The Pirates’ subsequent onside kick was recovered by Jireh Wilson with 5:05 to go, but Jeffrey Jones then recovered the football on the next play when Ahlers’ forward pass effort was ruled a fumble.
