Mustangs fall 24-17 to ECU after mid-game tie (Photo by Christina Parrish, The Daily Campus)
Five turnovers cost the SMU Mustangs a hard fought game against the East Carolina Pirates Saturday afternoon.
Starting quarterback Jerad Romo threw four interceptions, including two in the final minutes of the game, sealing the deal for the Pirates.
“Being a quarterback is a high risk and high reward job,” head coach Phil Bennett said. “Other guys made mistakes not as glaring as the quarterback position.”
The Mustangs were coming off a huge last-second win on the road against UAB. Unlike the effort after the Texas A&M and Tulane games that followed the team’s win against TCU, the Mustangs showed more effort on the field.
“I think my effort was there,” said Romo, “but I’m not proud of my performance.”
Aside from his four interceptions, Romo threw for 211 yards and connected on 19 of his 37 passes and the Mustangs were 3 of 3 on Red Zone scoring opportunities.
The Mustang special teams have vastly improved since the start of the season. Kicker Chris McMurtray made a 32-yard field goal attempt. Punter Ryan Mentzel four kicks yielding 156 yards, three of which landed inside the 20-yard line.
Bennett said that while the first instinct would be to pull the redshirt freshman out, he and the coaches decided to keep him in to help him get more experience.
Sophomore Cedrick Dorsey has been injured, but Bennett said he is “hopeful” that he will return next week against Tulsa.
“Cedrick gives us something offensively we didn’t have this weekend,” Bennett said.
The Mustang defense put up good numbers this weekend. They were able to make crucial fourth down stops, including a goal line stand at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Bennett said he thought the defensive line had one of their best games of the season. D.D. Lee said that while the game showed a better effort by the time, “missed tackles killed us, and turnovers killed us.”
Despite having to be on the field over half of the game, Lee was confident that the two sides of the team wouldn’t play the blame game.
“We definitely don’t point fingers,” Lee said.
Junior defensive tackle Adrian Haywood said that the loss wouldn’t set the team back. “We’ve always had the ability to bounce back,” he said.
The Mustangs will need intense focus for their next game. They will travel to Tulsa next weekend to take on the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa, another Conference USA transfer from the WAC, has had success in their 2005 campaign. TU is 4-3 going into Saturday’s game, with an impressive 54-2 win over North Texas, a 37-31 overtime win against Memphis, and a 41-21 win over Rice last Saturday.
While SMU holds a 9-3 lead in the TU series, the Mustangs have not won on the road since 2001. SMU is looking to win two consecutive games on the road for the first time since 1997.
The game is scheduled to start at 2:05 p.m. and will be broadcast on the CSTV internet feed available on a pay-per-view basis at www.smumustangs.com.
Mustangs fall 24-17 to ECU after mid-game tie (Photo by Christina Parrish, The Daily Campus)
