Film breakdown: USC big plays arrive; run game tweaks; Bentley’s long throws

Through three-plus quarters, the South Carolina football team ran almost 60 plays.

Of those, 10 went 10 yards or longer, one 23-yard catch-and-run accounting for the only one longer than 18.

Half of the Gamecocks’ final 10 plays went 24 yards or more. They were more than a third of USC’s total yardage for the game and each was needed to secure the harrowing comeback win. It’s worth taking a closer look at each.

11:14 Q4, La. Tech 28 yard line

OrTre Smith runs a post route and gets relative 1-on-1 coverage with a safety in the middle of the field. Shi Smith running a shorter in route peels away an underneath defender. The throw is a laser, and the fact Ortre Smith holds on through the hit is impressive, let alone stay up and run the rest of the way. It’s also worth noting that Jake Bentley has a pass rusher bearing down as he throws, even if some good work by the right guard eventually neutralized the threat.

5:32 Q4, South Carolina 26

The play-action keeps the linebackers and nickel close, and the field safety steps up. It’s not clear if he should be dropping or if the other safety should have stayed in the middle. In any case, the other safety comes over to get Hayden Hurst on a deep drag, and the corner seemed to think he had help inside. He didn’t, and Bentley with excellent protection tosses a strike for 39 yards.

5:01, Q4, La. Tech 35

South Carolina is trying to run into what looks like an eight-man box. The Tech defensive line slants into zone blocking, and Hurst comes across the formation to get the edge defenders (often called split zone). It looks as if the corner, nickel and linebacker behind the line all follow Hurst. Ty’Son Williams shoots through the gap, steps past an arm tackle and gets the angle on the safety, causing Will Muschamp to explain “we gapped them” after the game.

0:36 Q4, South Carolina 21

The play starts with both of South Carolina’s tackles getting beat. Bentley has to slip two sack attempts before he ever gets set. As soon as he dodges the second one, he’s just going. He’s got a good feel finding space, and while the stutter step as he changes direction is hardly graceful, it works for a few more yards. Bentley has shown a knack for those kinds of plays, even if it sometimes leads to trouble.

0:21 Q4, South Carolina 45

Much has been made of the fact Bentley was signaling for a spike moments before this play. What might be more interesting is how he worked through things. The five-man protection holds well, and with OrTre Smith and Williams on short routes, neither is a real option. You can see his head shift twice, possibly working from left to right, Hurst to Shi Smith and then to Bryan Edwards. The receiver seemed to be a little behind the defense, but with a corner close and a safety coming over. In his time, Edwards has shown himself to be a force winning jump balls. He went up, over and did win this battle for 41 yards to set up the game-winner.

That bad pass

The Gamecocks nearly lost the game, in part, because of a defensive miscue that let up a 42-yard toss to Teddy Veal with about 3 1/2 minutes to go.

The Louisiana Tech play involved a pump fake on a screen and then looking deep to a receiver who went deep instead of blocking. At the snap, safety D.J. Smith steps toward the deep receiver as Chris Lammons bails to be a middle field safety. It appears Smith is quickly in the position of chasing as Veal races downfield.

It took a good throw to drop it into that window, but J-Mar Smith made it, dropping the ball over Smith and Lammons, who was also racing to get back.

Revitalized running game

After a disastrous day on the ground against Kentucky, the noise was loud for change in how South Carolina ran the ball.

The result against Louisiana Tech: Some change, mostly tweaks.

On the first play, Williams ran a sweep. This is notable for two reasons; first, it was Williams, whose workload increased; second, it was a sweep, something USC has run sparingly this season.

Sweep

The Gamecocks ran three sweep plays after none a week earlier. The majority of the running game (22 of 26 plays), were in the inside zone/power/counter concepts Muschamp had promised to focus on earlier this season or variations thereof, but there were wrinkles.

Two of the four power runs came with jet sweep fakes to hold some defenders. Several of the inside zones had tight ends wrapping inside at lead blockers.

Four of the inside zone runs had tight ends coming across the formation to seal the backside, something some coaches separate out as “split flow” but Muschamp appears to consider part of inside zone. That was the scheme in place on Williams’ big run.

On short yardage, USC ran inside zone from under center, putting three tight ends in the game. They also combined an outside lead run for A.J. Turner with a QB read (the play was similar to something USC ran on the goal line against Kentucky, and was stopped the same way when a corner came off a receiver blocking inside).

Short-yardage

Against Louisiana Tech, that all worked. It remains to be seen how that will translate to SEC play.

Missed chances

One theme in the early going has been Bentley overthrows, as he sometimes misses deep receivers that seem to be open.

This came up early, when he went for a wheel route on USC’s opening possession, missing a deeper pass when Shi Smith was open short in the red zone. Later, he had Edwards open after a double move and put the ball too far.

Early wheel

The explanation as to how to fix can seem a little unsatisfying. In one sense, Bentley does need to get sharper, as potential big plays are being missed. In another, those are for the most part hard throws, and while outsiders see the receiver with a step or two, they often don’t appreciate the difficulty of putting a ball in that right spot.

A coach’s logic would likely be this: If receivers are open or in good matchups, good things will result.

Bentley had a moment when he threw a deeper corner route on fourth quarter third and 3, facing a stacked box and one-on-one matchups to that side. Muschamp acknowledged there were receivers running shorter routes, the sort that could keep a drive going, but he didn’t fault Bentley for trying to make a play.

Third down throw

This story was originally published September 25, 2017 at 5:11 PM.