The key moments and drive-killers that turned South Carolina’s bowl loss
Almost every football game turns on small moments, a play here, a drop there, a crucial miscue somewhere. And when enough of those pile up, it takes a game from close to not.
South Carolina’s Belk Bowl loss to Virginia wasn’t that close by the end, but it was for a while, and a set of small plays prevented USC from having a better chance.
A few of those that stuck out to Will Muschamp:
▪ USC went for a 4th and 1 on the first drive, calling a play-action pass on a heavy look. The Gamecocks got an open receiver in Rico Dowdle, but a pressured Jake Bentley put the ball too high.
▪ The next drive, South Carolina faced third and 1 on their own 29. Running back Ty’Son Williams didn’t bend the ball back to where it was supposed to go, instead leaping into a pile and getting stopped short.
▪ On third-and-7 with 9 minutes to go in the second quarter, Bentley escaped pressure and found and open Josh Vann to covert and move the ball into Virginia territory. But Vann dropped it. After a punt, UVa marched for eight minutes to make it 14-0.
▪ After a stop to open the second half, the Gamecocks not only went three-and-out from their own 16, but managed to lose yardage on the drive. The ensuing punt gave Virginia a drive starting at the USC 39.
▪ On that drive, South Carolina couldn’t get stops on third and 6 or third and 7. After that, it was 21-0, and an ailing offense was unlikely to rally from that.
“We had a lot of drive-killers like penalties and little things that we should be doing,” tight end K.C. Crosby said.
“We just did little things to beat ourselves.”