One suggestion to jump-start South Carolina’s offensive attack: More deep shots
Rico Dowdle has seen three years and a game of South Carolina football. The senior tailback has played for two coordinators, one head coach and now four offenses that have had their share of ups and downs, notably a down Saturday against North Carolina.
And he had a few thoughts about how things might change after the team scored seven points across the final 48 minutes of game time.
“I think we could have ran the ball on the them all game, if you ask me,” Dowdle said. “We didn’t run it as much as we did in the first half.”
Through one quarter, the Gamecocks had nine carries for 90 yards. The next 19 non-sack carries netted 58 yards.
Another issue Dowdle saw — not enough from the deep ball.
“I don’t think we took a lot of shots down the field,” Dowdle said. “I guess we could just take more shots.”
USC threw a few deep balls, but hardly any that were particularly threatening. Only four completions netted more than 11 yards, and one of those was a swing pass to Dowdle behind the line of scrimmage.
Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp objected to that characterization, arguing the lack of deep passing was tied to breakdowns elsewhere. He said there were 17 plays with a primary read down the field, but things didn’t line up to hit them.
“I came in on Sunday and one of the first questions I asked to our offensive staff was that we need to attack the field vertically,” Muschamp said. “So you go back and you look at it, we had 17 calls where the primary read was a vertical read down the field. With that being said, protection breaks down, the route is covered, which changes the coverage and changes the read, obviously.”
Protection was clearly an issue, as problems in the interior line left Jake Bentley with little room to step up. The team has moved guard Donell Stanley inside to center and could replace the other starting guard depending on how the week goes at practice.
The offense ended up getting the ball on the perimeter a good bit, with backs and QB-turned-receiver Dakereon Joyner hauling in six of the team’s 16 receptions, mostly on swing passes, screens or jet sweeps.
The team’s total output of 4.4 yards per play would have been the team’s second-worst mark last season, second-worst of 2017 and fifth-worst of 2016.
In addition to using Dowdle and Tavien Feaster less as the game went on, the team had trouble all day getting the ball to their top pass catchers, whether that was deep, intermediate or otherwise.
After Charleston Southern this week, the schedule becomes all SEC. If USC hopes to turn things around with a new QB at the helm in Ryan Hilinski, it will need to start getting those playmakers in the mix wherever they can.
“We’ve got two guys that have been very effective in training camp in Bryan (Edwards) and Shi (Smith),” Muschamp said, “and they’ve got to touch the ball more. We need to get more touches to those guys where we’re guaranteed we’re going to get the ball in their hands regardless of the coverage and circumstances. That’s something we’ve talked about.”
