It's another must-win game for USF vs. ECU

For Willie Taggart and his USF football team, must-win games are starting to align themselves.

The Bulls are 4-4 and 2-2 in the American Athletic Conference with four regular season games remaining and the number that sticks out for Taggart is six.

USF needs six victories to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2010 and the unofficial consensus is that's what Taggart needs to keep his job.

After losing to Navy last week, USF is on the road to face East Carolina (4-5, 2-3), which hopes to end a two-game losing streak. The Pirates are also looking to become bowl eligible and are 3-1 at home this season.

The best thing going for the Bulls is that they are now healthy at running back, with Marlon Mack, and at quarterback with Quinton Flowers.

Both were less than 100 percent against Navy and the offense suffered, particularly with Flowers, who was still dealing with a thigh contusion. Mack had a sore hamstring.

After running for 201 yards against SMU, Flowers rushed for 15 yards on only six carries against Navy and it was obvious he was not able to utilize this dual threat skills.

"All of those guys are ready to roll. All of them had a good week of practice, running around really well," Taggart said. "I'm happy where we're at from a health standpoint this time of year. We're a lot better than we were last week, so that's good."

USF ranks 23rd in the FBS in rushing offense, averaging 213 yards per game on the ground. Flowers is an integral part of that. When both he and Mack are running well, defenses are hard-pressed to stop the Bulls.

Flowers has 578 rushing yards and needs 295 to break Matt Grothe's single-season school rushing record for a quarterback. Against Navy, Mack was limited to 29 yards on 10 carries.

Defensively, the Pirates are big up front and will have a significant size advantage against the Bulls' offensive line. USF co-offensive coordinator Danny Hope hopes his guys nullify that advantage with their technique.

USF's take-away defense hopes to take advantage of the Pirates' tendency to turn the ball over. ECU is tied for 116h with 19 turnovers lost, has a turnover margin of minus-8 and has thrown 12 interceptions. But they are still averaging 415 yards offense per game and have one of the better receiving corps in the game.

"We know they're a dangerous group that can score real quickly," Taggart said.

USF has a plus-4 turnover margin with seven interceptions and four fumble recoveries and has averaged 2.25 take-aways in the last four games.

After getting off to a 1-3 start, the Bulls rebounded with victories over Syracuse, Connecticut and SMU before losing to favored Navy.

This game is critical because the Bulls face AAC East Division leader Temple next week in a game that could decide a spot in the conference championship game. USF needs to keep within striking distance of the Owls.

"It has to be about us and us executing efficiently enough and making the plays that we know we're capable of," Taggart said. "We just have to go out and be able to do that. I feel like if our football team does that every week, the chances are good for us."

East Carolina has thrown at least one interception in each of its past eight games. The Pirates totaled four picks in last week's 31-13 loss at UConn, a team USF defeated on the road.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "It's another must-win game for USF vs. ECU ."