Thomas Sirk shines in another miserable Pirates loss

All eyes in the American Athletic Conference have been locked on returning conference Offensive Player of the Year Quinton Flowers. But if you were stuck watching him in South Florida’s win over East Carolina, you missed the show Thomas Sirk put on for the Pirates.

ECU fans finally got to see what they expected out of the Duke transfer who led the Blue Devils to a national ranking and bowl game victory in 2014. Sirk combined for 389 yards (302 passing, 87 rushing) and four touchdowns against the No. 18 ranked team in college football.

While Sirk was a major bright spot, ECU looked overmatched and allowed the game to get out of hand in the second-half again, almost getting doubled-up in the 61-31 loss.

"Thomas is going to give us a real chance this year," ECU head coach Scottie Montgomery said. "He's going to get better. I knew this was going to happen. What we've got to do now is make sure people around him play at a high enough level that if we do have to get into some shootouts, we can win some.”

This game certainly had all the makings of a shootout in the first half. With the Pirates keeping pace early, only trailing 14-10, Sirk threw a pass to Quay Johnson but the ball bounced off his hands and into USF linebacker Auggie Sanchez's. What would have been a bad break got worse because Sanchez had a clear path to the endzone for an early back-breaking touchdown.

From then on, the Bulls had a safe lead the Pirates could never close up, but cut to just seven on multiple instances going forward. ECU went into halftime only down by seven after a stressful score from the one-yard line. ECU had roughly a minute remaining from inside the 10, but let the clock run all the way down to just four seconds before having to burn its final timeout. Montgomery dialed up a jump pass which Sirk executed and barely got the ball to tight end Stephen Baggett who hauled it in with one hand, bringing the score to 31-24.

"It was going to be called no matter what, whether it was on second down or third down, but you've got to call timeout before you get it (the play) called because people can get aligned right and (Sirk) has to be able to see what the defense is doing," Montgomery said. "It was called and Thomas executed it, and what a catch by Baggett."

The Pirates couldn't capitalize on closing the gap and got crushed down the stretch. ECU scored just one touchdown, Sirk's second rushing on the day, but surrendered four to Flowers and the Bulls’ rushing attack. By the end of the game, Flowers had rushed for 93 yards and added 160 through the air, much less than Sirk, but got the support his counterpart didn't. USF running back D'Ernest Johnson eclipsed the 100-yard mark, rushing for 111 and two touchdowns, adding the final one of the game.

Saturday shows just how far the Pirates have to come to be a top contender in the conference. ECU still has six conference games remaining and all the possibilities of making a conference championship still in front of them. However, that takes putting a complete game together.

"Our guys are still energized, they're still playing hard, they know we're coming though,” Montgomery said. “They also know we're hitting this conference and in this conference, we've got a long way to go. Right now we're 1-1 in this conference with a loss to the team most people picked to win it. With some help from some other people and with us playing well, we can be right back in the driver's seat. "

Up next for the Pirates is another conference matchup with Temple. The Owls have given the Pirates problems for years, beating them in the last three matchups, but aren't as talented as they've been in the past. Two weeks ago, Temple faced off with USF and only gained 85 total yards with a combined negative-four on the ground. ECU was able to take care of Connecticut two weeks ago, and will be faced with that same challenge come this Saturday at noon against an average Temple.