USC defense plays well, but Muschamp expects more

South Carolina limited Texas A&M to a season-low 24 points Saturday, but Gamecocks coach coach Will Muschamp said he expects more from his defense.

“Right now, defensively, we’ve got to fit things perfectly right,” Muschamp said. “We’ve got to be in the right gap. We don’t have much overlap to be able to overcome for a misfit upfront. Our guys fit the run decently well.”

Entering Saturday’s game, Texas A&M averaged 545 yards of offense per game. USC held it to 422 total yards, limiting quarterback Trevor Knight to a season-low 206 yards and no touchdown passes.

“You have to give credit to South Carolina,” Knight said. “They came to play today, and they made the plays that they need to, to make us stutter. My analysis of it is we stopped ourselves a lot.”

Texas A&M converted on 9 of 19 third downs, which acted as the kryptonite to the Gamecocks’ bend-don’t-break defensive scheme.

“It’s just third downs. I’m disappointed,” Muschamp said. “We’ve got to challenge receivers. You’ve just got to get up on the line and get your hands on them.”

Despite the loss, several defensive backs created turnovers to halt the Aggies’ momentum. In the third quarter, cornerback Chris Lammons made an acrobatic interception, and safety Chris Moody recovered a fumble and returned it 20 yards to put USC in scoring position.

Cornerback D.J. Smith led the Gamecocks with a career-high nine tackles and one for loss. He said he believes the defense has improved, and is hopeful it can finish games in the future.

“When we have the energy and we’re all in and we’re all playing for each other, we can have some good bursts and we can play against anyone in the country, I think,” Smith said. “I just think it comes down to us finishing the game and not making dumb errors.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 9:40 PM with the headline "USC defense plays well, but Muschamp expects more."