What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
For ECU it is likely one of the following (in no particular order):
(1) 12-7 loss to National Champion Miami in '83: 2 open WRs ran into each other attempting to catch the game winning pass in the endzone as the clock ran out in the Orange Bowl.
(2) 64-61 OT loss to #21 Marshall in the now defunct 2001 GMAC Bowl: Up 38-8 at the half and then the wheels fell off. Two 2nd-half David Garrard screen passes were intercepted and returned for TDs and ECU's defense was turned into swiss cheese.
(3) 23-21 loss to USM in '86 in DF: USM down 21-20 on their own 16-yard line with only a couple seconds to play heaved a desperation Hail Mary which was caught and advanced all the way to the ECU 10-yard line where WR was tackled. Nearly a second after being down, WR then pitched the ball forward to a teammate that ran the ball into the endzone. However, the official somehow ruled that he wasn't down before pitching the ball forward but did rule the pitch illegal as a 2nd forward pass in one play. Unfortunately, the rules at that time made it only a 5-yard penalty and permitted an un-timed down. If ECU declined it would have resulted in a TD for USM. The extra play allowed USM to kick the game winning field-goal from the 15-yard line. After the kick split the uprights, an ECU fan attacked one of the officials.
(4) 20-17 OT loss to Arkansas in the 2010 Liberty Bowl: ECU came in as the 1st team listed in the others receiving votes column, needing a win to cap off back-to-back C-USA titles with a likely top 20 ranking and a 10-win season. ECU lost the game despite out gaining a quality Arkansas team by 100-yards and not allowing a single 3rd down conversion (0-13).
More disturbing, Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett's only TD pass was a 41-yard bomb where ECU CB should have intercepted but tripped allowing for an easy TD grab for the Razorbacks. The highly touted Mallett went 15-36 passing for only 202 yards and the high powered Arkansas offense was held to 283 total yards.
ECU QB Patrick Pinkney also gift wrapped a TD for Arkansas by throwing it right to their CB for an easy 37-yard return for a TD. ECU kicker, Ben Hartman, who had game winning kicks against Boise State, UNC, and Marshall missed two field goals (one off the uprights) in the final 2 minutes of regulation (either one would have won the game) and in OT Hartman missed another. Arkansas subsequently booted the game winner.
There was an awful joke going around Greenville afterwards that Hartman tried to hang himself....but he couldn't even kick the chair out from under his feet. It's crazy how a guy could kick so many important game winners in his carrier and become the all time points scorer in ECU history, only to be remembered as the biggest goat.
Honorable Mention: 47-46 loss @ #7 FSU in '83, 24-17 loss @ #6 Florida in '83, and a 38-31 loss @ Illinois in '91 (only loss of the season). All 3 of these games had controversial calls at the end that affected the result and the Big Ten officiating crew actually publicly apologized after the Illinois game.
Sorry fellow Pirate supporters for bringing up bad memories but I'm bored and we still have a couple months left before the season begins and we need stuff to talk about.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
We have so many over the last few years. Temple hailmary ruled out of bounds vs UConn, Buffalo hailmary, Fordham hailmary last year, and of course, UCF bomb to Worton.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
our loss to usm that cost us the bcs game in 2011..still hurts my soul.. no one was expecting it and we were already celebrating pregame, you see the players were just out there enjoying life thinking this was in the bag
i think we learned a value-able lesson that day about overlooking opponents. ihonestly was sad for 3 weeks straight
our most Historic loss is probably the our loss to ND in the "chicken soup" Cotton bowl game, when Joe Montana lead a come from behind rally to win after eating a bowl chicken soup in his last ever college game. (they were down 22 going into the 4th quarter)
(This post was last modified: 07-02-2014 07:58 PM by pesik.)
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
Tulane has lost so many "unloseable" games through the years... As memories fade, the heartaches have slowly congealed into into giant glob of emotional pain/grief. I don't know quite how to pick just one game out from all the others, but just offhand I'd go with --
1996: Louisville 23, Tulane 20. The most clear-cut, indisputable instance of referee-incompetence determining the outcome of a CFB game I have ever witnessed. Just absolutely pathetic work by the zebras in that one.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
2002 at home against cincinnati. a win would sent memphis to the gmac bowl. memphis leads with less than a minute. cincy is forced to a 4th and 27 from beyond mid-field. geno guidulli drops a hail mary bomb to get the first down and of course they score as time expires.
im pretty good at wins and losses, but that one got me. i just walked around in the parking lot for a good while before going home.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
(07-02-2014 07:56 PM)pesik Wrote: our loss to usm that cost us the bcs game in 2011..still hurts my soul.. no one was expecting it and we were already celebrating pregame, you see the players were just out there enjoying life thinking this was in the bag
i think we learned a value-able lesson that day about overlooking opponents. ihonestly was sad for 3 weeks straight
I can't think of a single non-ECU game that I was more disgusted with and disappointed for than that Houston loss. A perfect season season is so rare and you guys had a great team that year. What a missed opportunity. As it turned out, ECU fans paid for that loss, too. That win for Fedora was all his resume needed to get the UNC job. Now we have to play that douchebag.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
(07-02-2014 07:57 PM)ncbeta Wrote: I'm young, so for me it's that damn liberty bowl loss against Arkansas...we would've finished ranked if only one of four FGs went in.
Felt like deja vu last year against Tulane... Can we recruit this guy >>. he seems pretty accurate.
Re: RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
(07-02-2014 07:37 PM)Indiana Bones Wrote: (3) 23-21 loss to USM in '86 in DF: USM down 21-20 on their own 16-yard line with only a couple seconds to play heaved a desperation Hail Mary which was caught and advanced all the way to the ECU 10-yard line where WR was tackled. Nearly a second after being down, WR then pitched the ball forward to a teammate that ran the ball into the endzone. However, the official somehow ruled that he wasn't down before pitching the ball forward but did rule the pitch illegal as a 2nd forward pass in one play. Unfortunately, the rules at that time made it only a 5-yard penalty and permitted an un-timed down. If ECU declined it would have resulted in a TD for USM. The extra play allowed USM to kick the game winning field-goal from the 15-yard line. After the kick split the uprights, an ECU fan attacked one of the officials.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
Tie, both in 1972:
1972, orange bowl, stopped Miami Fl on downs and the Offense runs on the field to take a knee; ref awarded Miami a 5th down, and they threw the winning touchdown pass.
Last game of the year, LSU stopped us on their 1/2 yard line on the last play of the game to win 9-3.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
I wasn't around yet for this one, but I can only imagine.
Like many other Coogs, the USM game broke me for a couple days. I can still remember when they blocked a punt and ran it in for a TD, the deafening silence that came over Robertson Stadium. It was weird.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
Ah, the Illinois lose in 1991? Thank B10 officials for throwing a bogus flag for unsportsmanlike conduct after we recovered an on-side kick, down one score. To top that off they didn't enforce it correctly. It should have been, 15 yards, 1st and 10, they spotted the ball 1st and 10, then marked off the yards to 1st and 25. Of course, we gained only 18 yards and lost. That was the one and only lose that year.
Looking back that was pretty bitter, the one and only blemish on the record that year.
RE: What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
(07-02-2014 08:08 PM)tigerjeb Wrote: 2002 at home against cincinnati. a win would sent memphis to the gmac bowl. memphis leads with less than a minute. cincy is forced to a 4th and 27 from beyond mid-field. geno guidulli drops a hail mary bomb to get the first down and of course they score as time expires.
im pretty good at wins and losses, but that one got me. i just walked around in the parking lot for a good while before going home.
That 4th and 27 is forever in my memory...that would have been 6 bowls in 8 seasons...that one stuck with me, too.
Our game against Tennessee in 2000 still bothers me, as well...
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What is your team's most heartbreaking loss of all time?
he seems pretty accurate.
