USC film breakdown: Tracking missed tackles and new pressure look

South Carolina coach Will Muschamp let his team have it in public forums over its tackling problems against Mississippi State. He told at least one person to go to the tape on a specific long run, where three defenders were at the point of attack and none made the play.

A closer look at the tape revealed a range of issues.

The aforementioned play featured two broken tackles at the point of attack, and another downfield after D.J. Smith took a bad angle and missed a chance to push quarterback Nick Fitzgerald out of bounds. All told, the Gamecocks had at least 18 missed or broken tackles, and perhaps 4-5 more depending on one’s interpretation.

Fitzgerald 74-yard run:

But that number doesn’t fully tell the tale.

The Gamecocks compounded their mistakes with numerous bad angles that yielded yards and, at times, a possible lack of will to get in and hit someone. Muschamp invoked his staff’s mantra of putting “a face in the fan,” and there were a handful of plays where it appeared defenders were a beat late in getting into a gang tackle.

In all, the Gamecocks actually kept a decent percentage of MSU’s runs to four yards or fewer, but they had a tendency to give up big ones in bad spots.

King’s corner

Muschamp all but called out corner Chris Lammons for his tackling, but the junior had an up-and-down day, while his backup, Jamarcus King, probably earned similar rebuke in private.

Lammons actually had a couple eye-catching tackles, but those didn’t tell the full scale of his day.

King made at least one very good tackle, but he has a couple bad misses and on several plays got stiff-armed or pushed back, yielding at least four extra yards.

King Miss:

King also bit on couple fakes, including veering away from the quarterback on a blitz, which resulted in a 17-yard completion.

Sagging front

On South Carolina’s first three drives, quarterback Perry Orth got belted five times, the last one including helmet-to-helmet contact that didn’t draw a flag. During those same three drives, three Mississippi State linemen shot into the backfield with little resistance and changed or smothered running plays.

The most striking thing about the poor day from South Carolina’s offensive line was how often linemen appeared to get beat one-on-one.

Jefferson sacks Orth:

Muschamp said there was some schematic issues, as the Bulldogs played more three-down fronts than USC’s coaches expected.

Without knowing the particulars of the gameplan, it’s impossible to say with 100 percent certainty, but it appeared at least seven times defensive linemen won individual battles to foil a play. One other time, the right side of the line got pushed a yard deep into the backfield.

Those struggles happened despite the fact MSU only sent more than four rushers one-fifth of the time in passing situations.

New look

The Gamecocks did deploy one interesting pressure look that fully utilized the Buck spot.

At least four times, mostly in passing situations, the Buck was standing and aligned behind a 3-man line like a middle linebacker. Actual linebackers were on the edges, and at the snap, they dropped, as the Buck, usually Darius English or D.J. Wonnum, came up the middle.

English had one particularly strong play where he started leaning to the right of the nose tackle, let the protection set, and then cut back across through an open gap untouched to create a third-down pressure.

Buck inside rush:

Notes

▪  South Carolina’s offense played two tight ends for nearly the entire game, rotating Hayden Hurst, K.C. Crosby and Jacob August.

▪  Muschamp mentioned some of freshman quarterback Brandon McIlwain’s success came from a defense playing not to give up the big play. It appeared to be more in approach than how players aligned, as corners mixed the amount of cushion they gave. The safeties stayed deep much of the time, but Muschamp said that was part of the overall gameplan.

▪  McIlwain did make several mistakes, running out of bounds instead of throwing it away and almost committing an intentional grounding after a bad snap.

▪  Veteran tailback David Williams didn’t appear to play a single snap

▪  Slot receiver Jamari Smith, a Game 1 starter, was a presence on special teams, but took only one or two snaps on offense. Freshman Randrecous Davis got time on the outside in the fourth quarter.

▪  Freshman tight end Kiel Pollard was on the kickoff team.

▪  MSU punt returner Fred Ross is exceptionally bold, rarely taking fair catches despite opponents bearing down on him.

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 7:59 PM with the headline "USC film breakdown: Tracking missed tackles and new pressure look."