South Carolina offense hits a wall in loss to Texas A&M. Losing season locked in
South Carolina football’s season isn’t over, but its shot at bowl eligibility is — Texas A&M took care of that Saturday night, handing the Gamecocks a 30-6 defeat.
The loss followed a familiar, frustrating formula for USC (4-7, 3-5 SEC); The offense, missing many of its top weapons, had no punch, posting its worst yardage total of the year. The defense, while solid, was slowly worn down by a large disparity in time of possession.
“We didn’t play very well,” head coach Will Muschamp said afterward. “We have obviously lost some confidence on offense.”
South Carolina has never defeated the Aggies, who lead the all-time series 6-0, and are 1-4 since the team’s upset of then-No. 3 Georgia.
“We’re not as far off as people seem to think we are,” Muschamp said.
Before the game even started, South Carolina’s chances took a huge hit when senior wideout Bryan Edwards, who played through a knee injury last week against App State, was ruled out shortly before kickoff. With senior running back Tavien Feaster already ruled out with a groin injury, freshman quarterback Ryan Hilinski was without his top rushing and receiving threats.
Then, on the second drive of the game, the Gamecocks lost a defensive leader. Senior linebacker T.J. Brunson, playing in his 48th career game, was ejected for targeting on a play in which he and defensive lineman D.J. Wonnum combined to sack quarterback Kellen Mond and force a fumble.
“I’m not going to comment on that. Two of our guys got whacked. It’s beyond me, guys. I’m done,” Muschamp said, referring to two fourth-quarter plays that were initially called for targeting on A&M but reversed upon review.
Brunson’s penalty erased a 12-yard loss for A&M and set the Aggies up for a field goal to take an early 3-0 lead.
South Carolina’s offense showed some life late in the first quarter when Hilinski found junior receiver Shi Smith streaking along the sideline for a 41-yard gain. Two more passes for 11 yards each put the Gamecocks at the edge of the red zone, but from there the drive stalled and they settled for a 37-yard field goal to tie things up.
Texas A&M responded with a 75-yard drive that started with seven consecutive runs, setting up a play-action wheel route from Cordarrian Richardson that was wide open for Mond to hit for a 17-yard touchdown.
“They weren’t really doing anything crazy to us. Just a couple missed assignments earlier in the game, and we tightened that up,” sophomore cornerback Jaycee Horn said.
The Gamecocks could get nothing going in response — outside of their 65-yard scoring drive, they never ran a play inside Texas A&M territory in the first half.
“Just not being able to get into a rhythm,” senior tight end Kyle Markway said of the offense’s biggest problem. “We go out there and make a couple plays, but we just can’t be consistent with it.”
The defense, however, refused to let the game slip out of reach. Mond took more than a few hard hits, and though the Aggies twice managed to reach inside South Carolina’s 25-yard line after their touchdown, they only came away with three points after a missed field goal and a red zone stand, resulting in a 13-3 lead at halftime.
Coming out of the break, USC’s offense remained dormant, putting up just 22 total yards in the third quarter. And with time of possession approaching a 2-to-1 ratio in favor of Texas A&M, the fatigued Gamecock defense started to show cracks. An early fourth quarter field goal put the Aggies up 16-3, and four consecutive runs on the next drive set up Mond for a one-yard sneak into the end zone.
“It was hard. It’s an SEC matchup, it’s a tough opponent, but so there was physical wear and tear, but you still gotta do a better job of finishing the game, stopping the run, getting the offense back on the field,” Horn said.
South Carolina finally converted a third down on its next drive after starting the game 0-for-10 in that area. It finished the game 2-for-15.
“We got goals on our board, it’s to be higher than 75% on third down, and we didn’t execute our goal and our plan, and it showed, going a lot of three-and-outs, keeping the defense on the field,” senior running back Rico Dowdle said.
The Aggies then put an exclamation mark on the rout with a 75-yard scoring run by Richardson.
“We were trying to stunt to create, to make some plays, and you end up giving up plays, so disappointed, extremely disappointing for our players,” Muschamp said.
NEXT
Who: South Carolina vs. Clemson
When: Saturday, Nov. 30
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium
TV: TBA — should be announced Monday
.This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 11:07 PM.
