What Bentley said about offense’s sluggish Belk Bowl, game’s impact on NFL decision
Jake Bentley’s roller coaster 2018 came to a rough end on Saturday, with the South Carolina junior quarterback posting one of the worst statistical performances of the season in a 28-0 blowout loss to Virginia in the Belk Bowl.
After silencing critics with a brilliant stretch of play late in the season, Bentley threw for just 218 yards Saturday with two interceptions on a 43.6 percent completion rate. For the first time since the Clemson game his freshman year, he failed to either throw or run for a touchdown.
“I did not think that I played really well, not well at all. The interceptions were tough, especially, and not executing in the red zone was not good,” Bentley said of his performance.
Bentley’s afternoon wasn’t helped by his receivers, who dropped several critical passes early on; his offensive line, which often appeared confused by Virginia’s exotic blitzing packages; or the flow of the game, which forced him to take riskier and riskier shots in hopes of sparking a comeback.
Still, for a player who is still deciding whether or not he wants to return to Columbia for his senior season or depart for the NFL, Saturday’s game was a bitter pill to swallow.
Whether or not it will effect his decision is another matter.
“You never like to end this way, a season or anything, but I don’t think it really has an effect overall on me. Just (waiting) a couple of days. Just going to kind of process everything. Just going to wait,” Bentley said of the game’s impact.
Bentley has indicated in the past that the opportunity to set school records could impact his choice of whether or not to go pro. On Saturday, he at least reached one major milestone, surpassing 3,000 passing yards on the season, a mark only four other USC signal callers have ever reached.
Still, when discussing the bowl loss Saturday, Bentley did at one point seem to refer to a future with the Gamecocks.
“We just have to go back to work and remember this feeling,” Bentley said.
USC’s other juniors facing NFL decisions — wide receiver Bryan Edwards and offensive lineman Donell Stanley — echoed Bentley on Saturday in saying that they will take some time before announcing their choices.
“I’m going to get a few vacation days, clear my head and talk to my people about it,” Stanley said. “I’ll probably tweet something out there, or something like that.”
“I don’t want to make any decision based off emotion or anything like that. I am just going to take a couple days and let everything smooth out and make a decision,” Edwards said.
