The panic button was there.
Although not visible to the naked eye, it’s never far away in football. For the East Carolina Pirates around halftime on Saturday night, it was right in front of them.
It began to flash when visiting Towson found footing against the ECU defense for an early touchdown that kept the Tigers in the hunt. The tension only grew as they clawed away with a couple of field goals in the middle quarters.
Meanwhile, the upstart visitors eroded the early progress of first-time ECU starting quarterback Blake Kemp and the revamped Pirate offense, and suddenly it was a 14-13 nailbiter with 10 minutes to play in the third quarter and ECU clinging to the lead in its home opener.