Topic: Marshall QB humbles ECU...

[GreenSteve]

Skip Holtz jogged his memory briefly, trying to decide whether or not Marshall's Bernard Morris was fiercest quarterback East Carolina has faced this season.

Even in the wake of ECU's 26-7 loss to the Thundering Herd Saturday night — led by the senior quarterback's 238 pass yards, 105 rush yards and three touchdowns — it was a tough call for the third-year ECU coach to make.

"You go back and it seems like a lot of quarterbacks have had their bonus night against us," Holtz said of his defense, which has been on the other end of memorable passing performances by numerous men under center, most recently Memphis' Martin Hankins and UTEP's Trevor Vittatoe. "Morris was really impressive today, and we're just not making a lot of things happen in our secondary."

Holtz said part of the problem in recent weeks has been trying to eliminate the big pass plays that haunted the Pirates early in the season.

He said guarding against deep passes has often left the defense vulnerable to the short balls which have hurt them dearly in recent weeks.

"Early in the season we were giving up the big plays, biting on everything underneath," Holtz said. "We tried to force the issue. And maybe we over-coached, and now we're so deep, they keep throwing everything underneath. We may not be giving up the home run ball over our head because no one has thrown a ball over our head in quite a while, but they sure are finding holes in the zone."

While Morris was not overwhelming in his numbers against the Pirates, his effectiveness left Holtz impressed, and left the Pirates in a potential tailspin in Conference USA.

No rally

Despite being a no-show for the first half, ECU was still very much in the hunt after falling behind 10-0 at halftime.

Holtz contended there was plenty of confidence in the ECU locker room at the intermission, and tailback Chris Johnson finally put the Pirates on the scoreboard with a third quarter touchdown.

But instead of igniting an ECU rally, it proved just a blemish on a near perfect night for Marshall, which had already rode Morris for a game-clinching 75-yard touchdown run at the onset of the third.

"We finally got the score, and it was like momentum got on our side," Holtz said of Johnson's three-yard scramble. "Then we put everybody up on the line and said we've got to make some things happen as a defense. We went after (Morris) and we ran by him and he did a great job of stepping up and avoiding the pressure, and once he got in the second level, there wasn't anybody there."

The Pirates were 4-of-13 on third downs, while Marshall converted 7-of-14. The Herd also converted its lone fourth-down attempt, part of the 16-play opening drive which ended in a field goal and, according to Holtz, was a great illustration of the entire game.

"Our offense was having a hard time getting anything going," he said. "I felt like the team was in it. They were in it until the fourth quarter. We just had a hard time getting anything going."

http://www.reflector.com/sports/content/sports/ecu/stories/2007/11/11/ecunotebook.html]

[Dreamherd]

Morris might have the strongest arm in the country.  He has a the Mike Vick "flick," but better accuracy.

[CJHerdgrad]

My seats are in 109, row 3 on the 41 yard line behind the visiting bench.  When we got that one 3rd & long play on yet another Bernie frozen rope pass, ECU's bench just went to pieces.  Some groaned loudly, others looked to the heavens & grabbed their head.  Still others just slumped & stared at the ground.

I'm telling you guys, we just wore them down to the point that they didn't want to play.  I've had my tickets there since 1995 & it's been years since I saw that type of a sideline reaction to our play.