Four Downs: East Carolina routs UNC, continues to knock off bigger programs
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- As East Carolina (3-1) was putting the finishing touches on its 70-41 thrashing of North Carolina, the sun began to set behind Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium and the sky, fittingly, turned purple.
It was a beautiful backdrop and one that seemed appropriate for the afternoon game that stretched into the evening.
North Carolina (2-1) likes to say that the sky is "Carolina blue", and often, it is. But there was nothing Carolina blue about this game for UNC -- not the sky, which was gray and foreboding most of the afternoon, and not any of the results. Not when ECU racked up 789 total yards, the most against a UNC team ever, and not when ECU broke the previous record of 669 yards in the third quarter.
Especially not when East Carolina scored its final touchdown of the game -- its 10th, putting them up 70-34 -- with 7:30 to go.
The Tar Heels entered the season in the Top 25, so it's quite a precipitous fall for them, as they didn't look good in wins over Liberty and San Diego State. But as for the Pirates, they're clearly a program under head coach Ruffin McNeill that's trending in the opposite direction. With two straight wins over teams that have spent time in the AP Top 25 this season -- not to mention hanging with South Carolina on the road -- ECU has proven it is for real.
It's probably about time we see East Carolina make it into the poll this week. The Pirates have one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Shane Carden, return a lot of talent on defense and have one of the best receivers in the country in Justin Hardy. Oh, and not to mention an offensive coordinator in Lincoln Riley that made a name for himself at Texas Tech with Mike Leach and the Air Raid offense.
ECU perennially plays a tough non-conference schedule. The Pirates have beaten Virginia Tech before, beaten North Carolina before (last year, in fact) and have beaten NC State before. They've given South Carolina fits in a fairly regular series for them, too, and during Boise State's stretch of dominance, ECU was one of the only teams to beat them.
None of the past matters now. McNeill, who's been the head man at ECU since 2010, knocked off Virginia Tech and North Carolina in successive weeks, marking the first time it has beaten both in the same season. The four straight wins over ACC opponents dating back to last season is a program record, too.
Look, the numbers are the numbers. Point is, the Pirates are good. Period.
"(The voters are) going to do what they're going to do but at the same time, we're going to come out and play like we're supposed to be there," Hardy said.
"Wins, man. You go by wins," Carden said. "I'm not a voter. I'm just going to keep playing. I'll let them deal with all that."
Top 25 ranking or not, these wins over ACC teams have been huge for the Pirates' program. McNeill, who struggled against non-conference opponents when he first got to Greenville, knows that better than anyone.
"I think from day one, five years ago, we have not wavered on what we believe or our philosophy," McNeill said. "Even in our first two years when it was tough. We could have become impatient and tried to microwave it, which I promised myself ... that I wouldn't do that and would built it block-by-block."
Technically, according to the oddsmakers, it wasn't an upset anyway. East Carolina was the favorite. But the Pirates go into games like this one -- and all games they play, frankly -- expecting to win.
A lot of teams say that. It's pretty clear that the Pirates actually believe it.
They were happy after the win, sure. But they weren't jumping off the walls or anything. They had beaten UNC the year before, beaten Virginia Tech on the road the week before and the Pirates have won seven of their last nine non-conference games, with the only losses being close ones to Virginia Tech and South Carolina.
"With the offense we have, how our defense is playing, how our offensive line has been doing -- it's not even our best game, so I can definitely expect it," Hardy said.
Wait. What?
From Hardy to Carden to running back Breon Allen (who had a career-high 211 yards), players just kept saying that they didn't play as well as they could have on offense. That seems mind-boggling, given their final totals.
"Not trying to be cocky, nothing against North Carolina or anybody we play but this is what we expect to do," Carden said. "We're an explosive offense. We can put up points in a hurry and we can put up yards in a hurry. This is just a display of some of the things we can do."
The implication seems to be that the Pirates can play better on offense. The thought of that is scary.
"I think if that's the best game we'll play, I'll be disappointed," Carden said. "I think this offense can definitely execute at a high level. We had plenty of mistakes. The (interception) -- I can't let that happen. I think this offense can play better."
Carden did clarify, though, that playing better doesn't necessarily mean more points. He had the turnover, there were some drives left unfinished (not many) and there were some offensive penalties.
So I guess, technically, it's true. They could play better.
"We don't look at it as yards and points. We look at it as execution-wise," Carden said. "We had some penalties, the pick, and just things that we can do better at."
That perfectionism that has become a part of this program is something that is at least in part fueled by the chip on their shoulder.
There's a notion in the state of North Carolina that the Power 5 public school programs -- North Carolina and NC State -- shouldn't bother to play the Pirates. What do they have to gain? If they win, they're "supposed" to win. If they lose, it's an embarrassment.
They had heard the chatter entering the game this week. And they heard it after the game last year, which ECU won 55-31 in Chapel Hill. UNC wasn't ready. UNC underestimated them.
"Basically saying that we were beneath them. Last year, they weren't ready for us or anything like that so this week, they had two weeks to be prepared for us," Hardy said. "So we were going to go out there and give it our best shot."
It's a pretty straightforward comment, obviously, but Hardy's eyes were fiery and angry.
It's a big brother, little brother scenario, supposedly. And the Pirates are, of course, supposed to be the little brother.
Carden, who has two older brothers, is pretty familiar with that role.
I've always been a little brother in my family. I know what it's like to get beat up by the old guys, and I know what it's like to beat them in something, and it's always a little sweeter," Carden said, grinning.
"This whole week, there was so much talk and all this stuff going around about this game, and our team did such a good job of understanding this is just another football game. It's a bigger opponent in a bigger conference, but we've just got to go out and play our football and we'll win the game."
Eventually, the little brother grows up enough to beat the big brother -- if not all the time, then often enough.
"Supposedly, somebody said we were the little brother," Allen said. "Well, the little brother's been beating up on the big brother for the last two years."
The thing is, that chip -- that fuel -- has certainly helped ECU become the program that it is, in a sense. Every football player searches for any and all slights he can find, and ECU players don't have to search far. It's part of what kept them grounded the week after beating Virginia Tech.
"We've definitely got to keep a chip on our shoulder. We're always going to keep a chip on our shoulder," Hardy said. "We want to always be the hunter, not the hunted. That's the mindset that we all have."
NC State had a marketing campaign the last few years with a slogan "Our State". North Carolina has certainly talked about wanting to own the state. But when asked after the game whose state it was, really, Allen just grinned.
"I'll leave that up for you to decide," Allen said.
The Tar Heels' defense wasn't great last season or even much of the early part of this season, but it was opportunistic, particularly this season. It forced turnovers, and got red-zone stops when it had to.
But East Carolina gashed the Tar Heel defense for 789 yards (446 through the air and 343 on the ground) and had it not called off the dogs relatively early in the fourth quarter, it might have been worse.
The Pirates picked up their yardage in chunks. Entering the game, the UNC defensive staff said that missed tackles against San Diego State (34) were a concern.
There was no official tally after this game yet, but ECU ran 98 plays and it felt like the Tar Heels missed plenty of tackles.
Obviously, credit is due to the Pirates' offensive line, and even its receivers, who blocked very well downfield.
But ECU was simply more physical than UNC's defense, and that's obviously a red flag. A big one.
UNC's schedule does not get any easier. Its next five games: at Clemson, Virginia Tech, at Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and at Virginia, a trip that suddenly seems a lot more difficult now. There are no more breaks left, and there are some dynamic offenses on that schedule.
Maybe none as dynamic as ECU's, but the real troublesome part was that the Pirates ran the ball seemingly at will, and they're a pass-heavy team.
"With the scheme that they ran, it was much more different than the scheme Virginia Tech ran so we could run the ball more," Allen said. "So I kind of knew I could get a few carries in there coming into the game."
Carden echoed the same sentiment.
"Virginia Tech, obviously, was a lot more aggressive coming down and filling up the box. It was harder to run against them, no doubt. We thought we'd get some more chances running the ball, and we wanted to do that," Carden said.
Perhaps the most telling play of the night was on a 3rd and 28 late in the second quarter. ECU was at the UNC 44-yard line, and they ran Allen up the middle for a simple draw play.
But he bounced off one tackler. Two tacklers. Suddenly he was in the clear, and rumbling his way not just to a first down, but a 44-yard touchdown.
UNC defensive coordinator Vic Koenning came immediately under fire, of course, from fans. But his head coach, Larry Fedora, defended him.
"He's a good football coach," Fedora said. "He'll get it right. We've got a bunch of good coaches. We just got out-coached tonight."
The Tar Heels had better hope so. Otherwise, there aren't a ton of likely wins -- if any -- remaining on the schedule.
