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Brown passes West Virginia by error-prone East Carolina
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Published: September 13, 2009
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.
Jarrett Brown is fitting in just fine with West Virginia's retooled offense.
Brown passed for a career-high 334 yards and four touchdowns and West Virginia paid East Carolina back with a 35-20 victory yesterday.
Brown was at ease in his second start since taking over for the departed Pat White. He completed nine straight passes at one point against a veteran defense and finished 24 of 31. He also ran 10 times for 73 yards.
West Virginia (2-0) sacked Patrick Pinkney four times and held East Carolina (1-1) scoreless in the second half. The Mountaineers used last year's 24-3 loss at East Carolina as motivation and improved to 13-0 all time at home against the Pirates.
"Last year they just came out and punched us in the mouth," Brown said. "We changed a few things and it worked out for the best. It's a momentum boost for me and my team."
East Carolina is still hoping for Pinkney to return to his form from last year, when he led the Pirates to a nine-win season that included a victory over Virginia Tech.
Pinkney followed a poor performance against Appalachian State a week ago by going 16 of 39 for 175 yards with one touchdown pass and an interception. East Carolina was limited to 237 yards of offense.
"I don't know what's wrong right now," East Carolina coach Skip Holtz said. "I'll have to sit down and talk with Patrick. We're not calling different plays. We throw a deep ball and overthrow it. We jump offside then he throws a slant route behind the guy. We're going to try and get it corrected."
Behind Brown, West Virginia has balance in its offense, moving away somewhat from the run-based spread attack made popular by former Coach Rich Rodriguez.
Brown was especially impressive with the deep ball. Two of his touchdown passes went for more than 45 yards and he had a 28-yard pass for a first down to Jock Sanders.
Brown capped his day by hitting freshman Tavon Austin with a 58-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter to put West Virginia ahead 28-20. East Carolina had a chance to close the gap in the fourth, but turned the ball over on downs at the West Virginia 25.
Noel Devine led West Virginia with 80 yards rushing, including a 4-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth that capped the scoring. Sanders had nine catches for 99 yards.
All of East Carolina's points came with help from West Virginia mistakes. The Mountaineers committed five penalties on their first two possessions, giving the Pirates great field position early, and Sanders and teammate Brandon Hogan mishandled second-quarter punts.
East Carolina's first-half scoring drives went 31, 26, 0 and 18 yards -- the shortest and longest of which went for field goals.
Without any help, East Carolina struggled. Pinkney threw passes behind his receivers and took little advantage of a West Virginia defense that lost linemen Julian Miller and Scooter Berry and linebacker Reed Williams with first-half injuries.
Pinkney threw six straight incomplete passes at one point, while Brown was sharp. Alric Arnett caught first-half touchdown passes of 46 and 11 yards from Brown and the Mountaineers led 21-20 at halftime.
Brown wasn't flawless, but his mistakes weren't costly. He threw a third-quarter interception deep in East Carolina territory and he fumbled the ball away at the ECU 19 early in the fourth.
In the end, Brown had at least one new fan in Holtz.
"He played special today, and I told him that after the game," Holtz said. "I made a point to go and grab him. I told him I was impressed with the way he handled himself today."
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