Opinion: N.C. State loss still lingers with Pirates

ECU's loss to Houston this past Saturday proved that the Pirates' loss to N.C. State the weekend before might be more damaging than originally thought. The overtime loss to the Wolfpack completely changed the complexion of ECU's season; challenging its players to determine which direction the team would go the rest of the way.

Against Houston, ECU played like a team that wasn't motivated or mentally capable of winning Conference USA games.

Houston out-hustled, out-coached, out-smarted and out-played the Pirates. What resulted was a 41-24 loss, the second-straight humbling experience ECU has been dealt in as many games.

"Overall, we just didn't play with the same fire, the same enthusiasm and emotion," said ECU coach Skip Holtz. "I think they played hard. I didn't look out there and see guys walking, I saw guys that were putting it out there on the field, but I don't think we played with the same emotion and passion as we did some other games this year."

Before the 2008 season started, ECU's goal was to win C-USA. After opening the season with wins against Virginia Tech and West Virginia, the goal drastically changed.

Talk of going undefeated and making a BCS Bowl led to a new mindset. The Pirates climbed to No. 14 in the nation and became the best story in the early college football season.

All of that was taken away by N.C. State however, which damaged ECU emotionally.

The dream season was over and the Pirates had to resort back to their original goal: winning C-USA. Houston then made matters worse by showing them that obtaining that goal will not be as easy as they might have thought.

"It might be a case of us coming in looking at records, because they were 1-3 and we were 3-1with a No. 23 ranking beside our name," said ECU safety Van Eskridge.

"Maybe we underestimated them a little bit as a team, but that's something that you can't do."

Houston played like a team that wasn't scared of the No. 23 ranking attached to ECU. The well-coached Cougars, who came into the game winless against Division I-A competition, had an excellent game plan and executed it with purpose and passion.

Holtz said he thought his team had a good week of practice leading up to the game and couldn't pinpoint a single reason for the loss, calling it "a humbling experience for everyone involved."

"We had four very emotional games [to start the season]," Holtz said. "... I'm certainly not trying to find a scapegoat or point a finger, but the reality is it's very difficult to play at that emotional level for five weeks."

For years, Holtz has preached that learning how to handle winning and success is more important than simply winning. The Pirates (3-2, 1-1 C-USA) haven't played well since beating West Virginia, and they will now have to learn how to win again.

"What happens in one game does not make a season, [but] how you react to it can," Holtz said. "I think that's going to be the biggest thing for us right now and I think this open date [this week] comes at a great time.

"When you play the physical and emotional games that we did, we need a break right now. We need to get some guys healthy and some guys mentally fresh again. I don't think you can sell short how emotional those first two games were on the football team."

Holtz now has an enormous challenge in front of him. First of all, he has to make sure he doesn't lose his players emotionally, if that hasn't happened already. Then he has to get those players to forget about the wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia, and focus on what it will take to salvage this season.

Last year, UTEP was faced with a similar dilemma, something that Holtz alluded to prior to the Houston game. The Miners started the 2007 season 5-1 and were sky-high emotionally after beating eventual C-USA West champion Tulsa. The next week, UTEP lost a very emotional game to ECU in overtime and the Miners never recovered-losing their final six games of the season.

Will the same thing happen to ECU? We'll see, but the Houston loss wasn't a step in the right direction.

This writer can be contacted at sports@theeastcarolinian.com.