GREENVILLE — Zay Jones has been the most consistent thing about a struggling East Carolina football team. Jones hauled in 19 passes for 185 yards and a touchdown to help the Pirate offense torch Connecticut, 41-3, in Saturday’s homecoming game in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The win snaps ECU’s five-game skid. With another astounding performance, Jones moves into second place in career receptions — trailing only Pirate great and current Atlanta Falcon Justin Hardy.

“It’s really special. I think it’s a huge credit to ECU and the type of wide receivers they produce at this university,” Jones said. “We’re coached by the best people, and we’ve had some of the best wide receivers come through here. … We’re back on track to where we want to be.”

After weeks of struggling to put together a complete football game, ECU came as close to perfect as it has in eight tries this season. The Pirates were 5-of-5 on red-zone trips, didn’t turn the ball over and notched four sacks — all from different players — after tallying one in the prior seven games.

“The effort and enthusiasm met the execution,” first-year ECU coach Scottie Montgomery said. “We’re close to as, where we’re at in the season, a complete game, without looking at the tape, that we’ve probably had.”

ECU’s offense performed as expected against one of the worst passing defenses on its schedule. It racked up at least 400 yards for the eighth game in a row. However, it was the near-flawless play in the other two phases of the game that let the Pirates coast to their first win since N.C. State.

“(Defensive coordinator) Kenwick Thompson works as hard as any coach I’ve seen this week,” Montgomery said. “… Any time you hold a team to around 300 yards of offense or less, you’ve done your job.

“I thought special teams played well today. We’re moving in the direction of ‘plus’ … Our special teams play, I thought, helped us win the game. We were playing kind of even. We talked about going from a dismal performance, to playing even, to now I’m taking it to the next step.”

After starting the season 2-0, a plethora of special teams mishaps let Virginia Tech embarrass the Pirates in Blacksburg, Va. Weeks later, special teams played about as mistake free as possible, and even notched one of ECU’s three turnovers. On a kickoff in the third quarter, Joe Carter forced Arkeel Newsome to fumble the ball, which Ray Tilman recovered.

The Pirates drew first blood on their first possession. Instead of settling for a field goal on the opening drive for the third-consecutive game, Montgomery risked it on fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line. It paid off when Nelson struck James Summers in the end zone.

It was Nelson’s first of two touchdown throws, and the team’s first of four.

Bobby Puyol put UConn’s only points on the board with a 34-yard field goal in the second quarter. That’s when Montgomery dipped into his bag of tricks. Instead of the typical Nelson-to-Jones scoring connection, Jones was the one throwing a 2-yard touchdown to Nelson on a reverse play, giving ECU a 14-7 lead with 45 ticks left in the half.

“Over the summer, (Jones and I) threw so much,” Nelson said. “We would just be joking around, running routes and whatnot. … That was a lot of fun.”

ECU blew the game open in the third period. Davis Plowman nailed a field goal, and Summers punched one in from a yard out on the next series. After the special teams fumble recovery, Nelson capped off a 17-point third quarter with a 6-yard sideline pass to Jones.

Summers hit former Washington standout Jimmy Williams on a 31-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth, and Plowman added another field goal to wrap things up.

Bobby Fulp and Colby Gore both came up with interceptions in the fourth.