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September 6, 2011

South Carolina's Season

I don't know about you, but I completely missed the Gamecocks being down by 17-0 early to East Carolina.  I know they ended up winning fairly big, but they did allow 37 points to the Pirates. Arrrgh!

What went well for South Carolina?  Well, they came back, for one.  For two, they generated turnovers that turned into TDs.  Three of them in the first five minutes of the second half that turned a 10 point ECU led into an 11 point deficit that only got wider.  Lattimore, Shaw and Garcia all ran the ball well.  Jeffrey had 92 of South Carolina's 131 receiving yards.  Lattimore had 33 more.

What didn't go well? They had four fumbles.  The passing game is lost outside of Jeffrey and Lattimore's receiving.  The passing game didn't stretch the field.  They had no sacks against a team that threw the ball 56 times.  They only hurried the QB 5 times.

A couple of thoughts I'll expand on later:
  • If...IF we find a way to stop the underneath pass play, we'll be good.
  • If we turn the ball over, we are toast.
  • The passing D for Usc isn't spectacular.  Pressure isn't their thing.  There is room to exploit that.  Shotgun formation draw plays is not what I have in mind when I type that.
Any things about their game stand out that I missed?

TD

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just that we have had them come in after bad games or losses prior and give us the game of their lives. This one should be NO different.

PatinDC said...

I saw the first half of that game. They came out flat. They are much better than the stats.

East Carolina was up for it. USC was definatly thinking ahead to the UGA game. We are toast...again. Sad Face.

This Round's on Garcia said...

Carolina barfed on their shoes for the first 20 minutes then played pretty well after that.

It's true that they didn't show much passing, but after the three quick TDs to start the second half they didn't have to.

> They had no sacks against a team that threw the ball 56 times. They only hurried the QB 5 times.

This is a little misleading. ECU has a quick-pass offense and a pretty good QB. I thought the DL got decent pressure, but ECU wasn't running anything that took long to develop.

> The passing D for Usc isn't spectacular.

No, not spectacular at all. Last year there were way too many big secondary breakdowns. It seemed a bit better Saturday but still allowed several big plays.

I think the pass rush will be good, though. Clowney looks like the real deal already.

Carolina said...

Gamecock fan here "spying".
I've only seen pieces of Georgia's last week performance, but I think the 2 teams are pretty equal talent wise. USC has a couple more big play makers, and UGA's recruiting has put above-average players all over the field. I think if Georgia's "4-3 style" 3-4 this year, with the linebacker looking like a hand-up DE, can throw off our O-Line, Lattimore's rushing will not look like last year. If Carolina outplays Georgia, a big part will likely be special teams. Yep. That makes this year's match up a little different. I believe the winner of this game is going to be determined on this week's mental preparation and their focus on Saturday.

Anonymous said...

Before you get too far ahead of yourself regarding South Carolina's pass rush, you might want to consider that ECU game up 15 sacks in 14 games last year. Forty-five or more of their 56 passes were under five yards (they averaged 4.6 yards per attempt).

South Carolina either led the conference or was second in sacks last year primarily employing a 4-man rush and relatively little blitzing. Three of their four DL are back, and they added the #1 recruit in the country who is a DE. UGA may beat the Gamecocks, but it won't be because of USC's lack of pass rush.

 
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