The big defensive mistake that cost Gamecocks dearly against Virginia

All week, South Carolina football made a point about Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins. He was quick, mobile and had to be kept in the pocket.

And yet, when the teams took the field in Saturday’s Belk Bowl, the Gamecocks pass rushers found themselves racing upfield, taking themselves out of the play and giving him room to roam.

“We’ve got to be disciplined in the rush, up front,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said after the game. “We missed him a couple times. We had guys in position at times. We had guys rush past the quarterback, which you can’t do when you play a team like this, and that was something we talked to our front about for the last two weeks.

“You rush past him, you’re playing with nine, you’re playing with 10. We’ve got to condense the pocket and make him play quarterback and we didn’t do that well enough.”

At day’s end, the junior ran for 81 yards on 15 carries, really 86 on 13 carries when factoring out sacks. He converted four third-downs with his legs, on a day when USC simply couldn’t get off the field.

That included a pair of third downs early in the third quarter, as the Cavaliers drove for the touchdown that made it 21-0 and basically put the game out of reach. On the first, the line got squeezed inside and he found the edge. On the second, former walk-on linebacker Spencer Eason-Riddle shot upfield and left Perkins a wide gap to run for a first down and set up a score.

Perkins also threw for 208 yards on 31 passes, with three scores and no interceptions.

“We tried to contain him in the pocket a lot, so we tried not to rush upfield too much,” senior defensive lineman Bryson Allen-Williams said. “He made a lot of plays today.”