Film breakdown: USC’s least-successful runs; when bending breaks; Deebo’s impact

Reviewing what went wrong with South Carolina’s run game wasn’t all that hard to do.

USC only had 13 carries from its running backs.

The reasons for that are in some ways situational. The Gamecocks were put off schedule on their second and third possessions. They were down eight or more points much of the game and had possessions limited. Coach Will Muschamp said Kentucky frequently loaded the box and made throwing a more attractive option.

And the Gamecocks often got whipped up front by the Wildcats, according to their coach.

Of those 13 carries, five would be considered successful, none overly so. Three weren’t great, and five were failures in high-leverage situations. It’s worth looking at each in that last group.

Third and 1, USC 25, 15:00 Q2

Rico Dowdle takes a power play behind a seven man front, right after a solid carry. In the box, there’s seven blockers on seven defenders, but one inside linebacker spills the pulling guard out of the play and no one gets to another inside linebacker. Dowdle meets him a yard from the marker and just gets stonewalled. It was a good tackle, no doubt, but an offense probably wants more movement.

Second and 2, midfield, 12:10 Q3

Dowdle gets the ball on a split zone play, and there’s not much movement inside. Bunching things up. Tight end Jacob August has two defenders in front of him, gets neither, and they both stop Dowdle for a gain of 1.

Third and 1, Kentucky 49, 11:45, Q3

With Dowdle looking banged up in some way, 190-pound A.J. Turner goes in. The call is USC’s base inside zone behind a line eight wide with a receiver motioned in, but the middle of the line just gets pushed back. Complicating matters, all blockers are occupied as a linebacker gets free to run up the middle and makes contact with Turner a yard behind the line.

Fourth and 1, Kentucky 49, 11:07 Q4

The call is again inside zone, likely because the chances of the middle of the line getting pushed back three times in a row are low. But it happened. A corner crashing in forced Turner inside, but with no crease ahead of him, he’s forced toward a linebacker who comes cleanly through.

Fourth and goal, Kentucky 1, 14:32, Q4

The Gamecocks called a counter-read play, one where Jake Bentley could keep the ball going up the middle behind Donell Stanley and Hayden Hurst pulling, or hand off to Rico Dowdle going outside depending on whether an unblocked end went inside or out. The end went in, triggering the give, but the problem came on the outside. Wide receiver Bryan Edwards crack-blocked inside, and the staff expected the corner guarding him to follow. Instead, that corner, a 6-foot-3, 186 pounder named Derrick Baity, came off Edwards and was there to get Dowdle.

There was some concern about Ty’Son Williams not getting enough carries. It seemed the drives when he was in either had South Carolina quickly in passing situations for other reasons or came when USC needed to pass.

When bending breaks

South Carolina’s defense continues to do the bend-but-don’t-break thing to the frustration of fans. Saturday’s game featured only two Kentucky plays longer than 20 yards, both with quarterback Stephen Johnson handling the ball.

Each play looked like a bust from the linebackers, but Muschamp explained there were other factors at work.

The first was a zone read play to the boundary, when the Wildcats had three receivers to the field, monopolizing the defensive backs. Complicating matters, nickel Jamyest Williams was blitzing from the field, meaning only one safety was deep.

Muschamp said the defensive end, D.J. Wonnum, was supposed to take the quarterback. He instead jumped inside. Skai Moore got tangled with a lineman, and Johnson had an open edge to go 22 yards and eventually set up a field goal.

The next drive, the Gamecocks forced third and 8. They manned up outside, left one safety deep, and blitzed five at the snap. USC has seemed to be augmenting its pass rush by having certain linebackers wait a beat and then get into the rush if a back stays in to block, and T.J. Brunson did just that.

But, Muschamp explained, the rushers didn’t maintain lane discipline. Johnson escaped the pocket and suddenly had yards and yards of green before him. A missed tackle and bad angle later, his long strides had carried him 54 yards.

The big play

The loss of Deebo Samuel means the loss of USC’s best big-play threat. The team needed no more proof of that ability than the game’s first play, a nifty set of simple concepts combined into a run-pass option.

From the outside, it appeared the play has three potential outcomes. In the box, Dowdle was running behind a line blocking inside zone with a tight end coming across to seal the edge. Shi Smith ran a bubble screen to the field side out of the slot. Samuel was matched 1-on-1 on the outside.

At the snap, both linebackers on Samuel’s side jumped up at the run fake. That opened the underneath window as Samuel got inside his defender on a post route. The fake worked so well, the lone deep safety bit and came up, sending Samuel off to the races.

Life after Deebo

Losing Samuel is a blow for all sort of reasons, but perhaps the versatility is what pops at the moment.

He was guy who could run a crisp curl or slant, who could win the battle for a jump ball, but USC has a few guys that can do that as well.

What’s trickier is the guy who does work after he catches it. Muschamp calls him a running back after the catch, and it’s true he can bull through folks. He also has that hard-to-quantify elusiveness, where he can catch a pass short of the sticks and dance his way past a couple tacklers for the first, or slip through traffic on a screen and suddenly makes space.

That’s to say nothing of his ability to score on jet sweeps, draw defenders on fake jet sweeps (two of USC’s four best runs Saturday came with those fakes) or change the dynamics of kickoffs with his presence.

The first change will likely be more targets for Hayden Hurst and Bryan Edwards. Hurst has the frame and speed to be a security blanket or deeper threat. Edwards runs routes well and gets jump balls.

Beyond them, it will be interesting to see if Shi Smith grows into more than the short-range target he’s mostly been (he caught one 25-yard post against Kentucky), if OrTre Smith’s odd touchdown catch, where he kept running on a route and snagged a pretty ball, is a sign of things, if Randrecous Davis or Chad Terrell have some upside early.

But with any of them, the consistent upside Samuel provided on a play-in, play-out basis isn’t there, and the Gamecocks will have to learn to live on offense without that reliability.

This story was originally published September 18, 2017 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Film breakdown: USC’s least-successful runs; when bending breaks; Deebo’s impact."