Greenville, NC – On Thursday night in a competitive, American Athletic game between two bad teams, SMU (4-2, 2-0) defeated East Carolina on scores with only 7:22 left to play. At our first game ever attended in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on the beautiful East Carolina campus, the stadium and the spirit of the ECU faithful impressed despite their team finishing this contest with a record of 1-5, 0-2 in the conference. The game was not pretty.
ECU Pirate Head Coach Mike Houston disappoints us having seen his success leading FCS James Madison as an annual top contender in that division previously. The talent and the game plan displayed fell far short of what we expected from him. His record at East Carolina in his fifth year stands now at 23-29.
Close for three quarters
A fumble by ECU QB Alex Flinn gave SMU possession on their 32. Roger Collins 50-yard field goal for SMU early in the fourth put the Mustangs up, 17-10. Later at the 7:22 mark, SMU safety Jonathan McGill picked off Flinn’s poorly thrown pass. He raced 34 yards down the right sideline untouched for a TD. The Mustangs extended their lead, 24-10.
The Pirates started their next series from the 25. They punted from the 33 with 6:43 left, despite needing two scores to tie or lead. They might as well have gone for the first down, even if they failed to convert on fourth and two. With 2:29 remaining, RJ Maryland caught a pass from Preston Stone for 43 yards with a twisting, turning dive to settle the score at 31-10 in favor of SMU. For Stone, he recorded his third throw for a TD among 19 of 38 for 276 yards. He lofted many passes high only to have eight knocked down by Pirate defenders.
SMU Ponies and ECU Pirates need some giddy-up!
ECU’s Mason Garcia substituted early for the ineffective Flinn, but he could only muster 155 yards through the air on 12 of 26 passes. SMU defended ten passes for knock downs between the two ECU quarterbacks. Neither team threatened on the ground. SMU picked up only 58 yards compared to the Pirates’ 97. Neither team impressed. Despite the 4-2 SMU record, they would struggle with many other teams with comparable records. Good luck to them next year against ACC competition.
Next!
Ho-hum. More American Athletic action coming up. SMU travels on to Philadelphia next week to take on anemic Temple (2-5, 0-3). ECU takes a break next week before a visit by neighboring Charlotte (1-5, 0-2) who we just watched get shut out by Navy. This game should be a yawner. For us, we traveled four hours west to Charlotte to witness the AAC matchup between Charlotte and Navy.
