GREENVILLE, N.C. - Decorated by plenty of pomp and hype, a sun-drenched stage was in place Saturday for Carl Franks' much-anticipated debut as Duke's head coach. Franks exuded confidence and quarterback Spencer Romine was comfortably strapped into the pilot's seat, itching at the thought of taking the perennially-suffering program airborne.
Unfortunately for Franks, linebacker Jeff Kerr and his cohorts on the East Carolina defense crashed his debutante party and pounced on the seat-eject button, knocking Romine silly time after time.
Riding the wave of its blitz-happy defense, ECU kept the much-hyped Duke offense out of the endzone and rolled to a convincing 27-9 win in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday afternoon.
"[That quarterback], Romine, Ramen noodles or something, that's what we turned him into," said Kerr, who sacked Romine twice, including a coffin-sealing hit on Romine late in the game that caused a fumble. "He did an excellent job of looking up his receivers, but he had so many receivers out there to look at, that he wasn't able to look at the defensive line coming at him."
Even with the Duke attack putting up more turnovers (four) than first downs (three) after the six-minute mark of the second quarter, the defense kept the Blue Devils (0-1) in the game for much of the second half.
Then the Pirates (2-0) struck gold with their option attack.
Clinging to a 10-9 lead late in the third quarter, ECU began a drive at its own 41-yard line. After quarterback David Garrard scrambled for 10 yards, the Pirates went to work with their bread-and-butter, netting 43 yards on two straight option plays run by two different quarterbacks to get down to the Duke 7. Fullback Jamie Wilson then took a straight hand-off on the next play and found the endzone to give the Pirates some much needed breathing room.
"They just started wearing us down a little bit," said Duke linebacker Todd Delamielleure. "David Garrard is a big quarterback and you really have to work to get him down. It's tough because whenever he rolls out you've got the possibility he's going to tuck it and run or he can throw the ball 70 yards in the air."
The Blue Devils seemingly halted ECU's momentum when Romine hooked up with Flowers on a 42-yard completion over the middle on Duke's first play after the ensuing kickoff. But one play later, ECU linebacker John Williamson mauled Romine in the pocket and knocked the football loose. Kerr recovered the fumble and thus began a long fourth quarter for Romine and the Blue Devils.
Garrard proceeded to march the Pirates down to the Duke 21 before settling for a field goal, putting ECU up by two possessions. After the teams traded scoreless possessions, Kerr ended Romine's painful outing with a jarring blindside hit that sent the ball flying and Romine down for the count.
"The offensive line did the best they could, I know they did, I don't blame them for anything," said a diplomatic Romine. "My hats off to their defense and their defensive coordinators. They're a good solid unit up front and they outplayed us today."
Three plays after Romine left the game with a separated shoulder, tight end Rashon Burns drove the nail in the Duke coffin when he caught a pass from Garrard at the eight-yard line on a third-and-23, ran over two would-be tacklers and hit pay dirt to put ECU up 27-9.
Burns' rumble into the end zone put the exclamation point on an afternoon of frustrations for the Blue Devils, who couldn't punch the ball into the end zone in the first half, and couldn't even make a dent in the defense in the second.
While the Duke defense held its end of the bargain in the first half, the offense failed in the one area where Franks wanted success-pushing the ball into the endzone. The Blue Devils moved the ball effectively and got the ball inside ECU's 30-yard three times in the first half, but settled for three Sims Lenhardt field goals.
"I knew when we kept kicking those field goals, I told someone on the headset, 'If we keep kicking these things, we're going to have a tough time winning this game,'" Franks said. "We have to get it in the endzone. I think that was the key for us not having the chance to be successful. we didn't put the ball in the endzone-it's as simple as that."
And on a day when Franks' offense never cracked ECU's 10-yard line, it means one simple thing-airborne crashed with a thud on its first takeoff attempt.
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