Opinion: Pirates will have to get physical in Charlottesville

Don't expect to see many five wide receiver sets from Virginia this Saturday. The five players who are most important to the Cavaliers offensive are the five who make up the offensive line.

With a formation similar to coach Ed Henry and the Marshall High School team in the state championship game of Remember the Titans, Houston out-finessed the Pirates two Saturdays ago with the shotgun formation and spread offense.

UVA will probably take a different approach this Saturday. The Cavaliers have been successful in years past-and this year-when they physically dominate the opposing team and win the battles in the trenches. With four of its five starters at least 6-foot-6 and over 300 pounds, UVA's offensive line looks especially menacing, which ECU coach Skip Holtz pointed out at his Monday press conference.

The most impressive thing about the Pirates' season opening wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia was the way they dominated physically. ECU hasn't played well since then, and there are a ton of reasons why: there have been key injuries, it's been an emotional roller coaster and ECU hasn't played with the same physical attitude as it did in the season's first two games.

To win in Charlottesville this weekend, ECU will have to regain that same swagger it played with over a month ago.

"When they get into that two-back offense, we're going to have be stern up front," said Holtz of UVA. "It's going to be a very physical football game and a real challenge for our linebackers and defensive lineman, because of their size and athleticism with their offensive lineman. Defensively, they try and stop the run and on offense they try and line up and run the ball. They have that type of mindset and they do a good job with it."

The Cavaliers definitely had that type of mindset in a 31-0 domination of Maryland this past Saturday.

UVA came into the Maryland game struggling on offense, trying to find an identity, as it had only scored 20 total points against Division-I competition.

Against the Terrapins, however, UVA looked like the Cavaliers of old. They ran for 201 yards and controlled the time of possession and line of scrimmage, while newly promoted quarterback Mark Verica managed the game and hit big plays when the opportunity was presented.

Part of this offensive resurgence is due to senior running back Cedric Peerman, who has been hampered most of the season with a knee injury. Peerman had 17 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown against Maryland, maybe giving the UVA offense the physical aspect it had been missing.

"Ced [Peerman] is a hard-nosed guy. He runs as hard as anyone," wide receiver Kevin Ogletree told the Charlottesville Daily Progress. "It was good to see. He gave us some confidence, we started doing some things well and we were moving the ball -running it well and passing it well."

On defense, UVA played with the same physical attitude. UVA held Maryland under 100 yards rushing and shutout the same Maryland team that knocked off Clemson the week before.

The Cavaliers have now shutout their last two opponents at home, and it looks like they might have regained the physical aspect their program has relied on for so many years. ECU played very physically in this season's first two games, and it will need to bring that same attitude to the game this weekend.

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