GREENVILLE — It was 2010 — the first year under head coach Ruffin McNeill — the last time East Carolina lost three games in a row. That stretch will be on the line Saturday night as South Florida comes to Greenville for an American Athletic Conference match up.

The Pirates (4-5, 2-3 AAC) have found little offensive success in their last two games, combining to score 27 points against the stingy defenses of Temple and Connecticut. The Bulls (4-4, 2-2 AAC) pose a similar threat as Temple and UConn with a defense that ranks in the upper half of the conference in nearly every category.

USF is led defensively by sophomore linebacker Auggie Sanchez, who had four tackles last season as a freshman against the then-No. 19 Pirates. Since last season, Sanchez has stepped up and enters this game as the team’s leading tackler with 70 on the season. McNeill also expressed his concern for two top-tier defensive backs for the Bulls heading into Saturday in Jamie Byrd and Nate Godwin.

“They’re both very active,” McNeill said in Monday’s press conference. “For us, it’s making sure we execute offensively and defensively.”

Defensively, ECU ranks right around USF in most categories, though the last two games have featured troubling second halves on that side of the ball.

Against Temple, while the offense sputtered its way through the second half, the defense collapsed in the final 6 minutes as it allowed 14 points to hand the Owls a 10-point victory. In last week’s matchup with UConn, 21 second-half points — with the offense, again, struggling to find a rhythm — sprung the Huskies to a 31-13 win in conference.

Penalties and turnovers were ultimately the downfall of the Pirates in the back-to-back conference losses, something McNeill said he and his staff is trying to correct in practice.

“We felt like we had opportunities in the last two games especially, but there’s a point where you have to have all three sides contributing and we didn’t get that done,” said McNeill. “We talked about taking care of the football and taking it away on defense. We talked about cutting down our penalties and making plays.”

For the Bulls offense, sophomores Marlon Mack and Quinton Flowers have carried his team to the No. 3 ranked rush offense in the conference. The running back-quarterback combo has teamed up for 1,296 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season. Junior Darius Tice is the third-of-four 100-yard rushers on the team with 271 yards and four touchdowns. He will be USF’s go-to option in the red zone.

“What (USF head coach) Willie (Taggart) has done is he has gotten Quinton Flowers’ mold around his ability,” McNeill said. “He’s very, very athletic, one of the most athletic quarterbacks that we’ll face, and Willie has shaped the offense around him.

“Marlon Mack is probably the best back that we have faced and will face. He’s averaging over 100-plus yards per game. He was excellent last year, but he has really been productive this year, too.”

Flowers has been efficient in the passing game as well. He has completed 60.5 percent of his passes on 162 pass attempts in the run-heavy attack. Junior Rodney Adams leads the athletic receiving core with 333 yards and five touchdowns.

After the past few weeks with both quarterbacks Blake Kemp and James Summers struggling to move the ball with consistency, McNeill and staff said they are hopeful that a front-runner will emerge against the Bulls as the season reaches its final two games.

ECU has to win two of its next three games to finish as bowl eligible. The Pirates and Bulls kick off at 7:30 p.m. at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium Saturday evening.