Suddenly, what the Pirates need is to formulate some kind of "bailout" plan, a strategy to recoup the edge they've lost, a plot to regroup and recapture a season going awry.

Last week N.C. State jolted their BCS hopes with a 30-24 overtime win. Saturday, Houston gave them a 41-24 Conference USA flogging, at times making the Pirates look like impostors instead of the No. 23-ranked team in the country.

"It was a humbling experience for everyone involved,'' said ECU coach Skip Holtz, whose team dropped to 3-2 and soon will disappear from the polls. "It was one of those nights that everything we ran something broke down. It seemed we couldn't get anything going right."

Conversely, Houston seemed to get most everything right.

Quarterback Case Keenum was one cool Cougar with a hot hand, completing 36 of 44 passes for 399 yards and three touchdowns.

In the controlled passing scheme, he flashed Heisman-type accuracy tossing the ball around to receivers led by Patrick Edwards (11 catches), or handing off to Bryce Beall, who rushed for 135 yards.

By twilight, Houston (2-3) had racked up an amazing 621 yards of offense compared to ECU's 275 and had also dealt the Pirates' C-USA aspirations a blow.

While appropriately saluting Keenum's "fantastic" game and the Cougars' overall execution, Holtz saw ECU breakdowns on offense, defense, and on the kicking units, which also incurred three personal foul infractions.

"We didn't have the same fire, the same emotion and passion as in other games this year,'' said Holtz. "I think this falls on us as coaches. We've got to take stock ... get back to fundamentals, the basics."

The Pirates had opened the season with four big, emotional games that included wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia, a draining comeback victory over Tulane, and then that gut-wrenching loss to State last week.

It's possible that month of mayhem took its toll Saturday, though Holtz wasn't sure, saying "I thought we had a good week of practice."

Trouble, the good practice just didn't translate on the field Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, where the fourth-largest crowd in ECU history (43,641) came hoping for a bounce-back performance.

The defense couldn't contain Keenum and company with various schemes, including nickel and dime packages. And the offense struggled so much Holtz made a quarterback change to start the second half.

After gaining just 94 yards in the first two quarters with Patrick Pinkney at the controls, Rob Kass opened in the third period and did manufacture an impressive 6-play, 70--yard scoring drive culminated with a short, bullish Brandon Simmons run.

Pinkney returned in the fourth quarter and threw a touchdown pass to Jamar Bryant, the highlight in an otherwise lowlight day in which he amassed just 100 yards throwing and lost a fumble.

"We made them get onto their perimeter in their running game and do some things they did not want to do,'' said Houston coach Kevin Sumlin. "Our game plan was excellent and we executed."

Holtz emphasized he wasn't putting blame on his quarterbacks, but rather summed it up as a team loss with mistakes surfacing "across the board."

The beginning wasn't bad. The Pirates gained a 7-7 tie when Emanuel Davis intercepted a pass and returned it 11 yards for a TD in the first period. And the defense -- which created four turnovers -- later set up a Ben Hartman field goal when Zach Slate forced a fumble and Nick Johnson recovered.

Still, Houston was in control, efficient and dominant most of the day.

Late in the first half Keenum threw a scoring pass to Mark Hafner, pushing the lead to 21-10.

Somehow, the Pirates -- though losing the statistical battle by a landslide -- managed to still hang within 24-17 late in third quarter. Then Keenum, always Keenum, rolled out, drew ECU's defense up and tossed a pass to wide open Kierrie Johnson on a back-breaking, crowd-silencing 84-yard touchdown play.

Shortly after that, Houston picked off a Kass pass, leading to more Cougars points.

The defeat left ECU's seniors in tears, Holtz said, and left the Pirates with a lot of work to do coming into an open-date week.

"We've got to go back to the drawing board, evaluate," said Holtz, whose team was one of college football's biggest stories just two weeks ago.

But now, it's a team again trying to chase fleeting fame.

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