Why South Carolina will remember the loss to Missouri, bowl game or not
Remember, remember the 13th of November.
OK, that’s not exactly how the rhyme goes, but the sentiment is relevant.
South Carolina didn’t exactly fall flat on its face in Saturday’s 31-28 loss at Missouri. Running back ZaQuandre White added a pair of touchdowns to pull the Gamecocks within a score late. USC notched 14 points off the three turnovers that its swarming defense forced.
Yet on a chilly night in central Missouri, South Carolina’s bowl aspirations took a massive hit with games against No. 17 Auburn and Clemson on tap.
“We didn’t play well enough,” head coach Shane Beamer said, “and we certainly didn’t coach well enough tonight.”
South Carolina found a groove in last week’s romp of Florida, the same Gators team that struggled with FCS foe Samford on Saturday in Gainesville. Williams-Brice Stadium rocked with excitement as Josh Vann beat defensive backs downfield. It erupted when Jabari Ellis pocketed an Emory Jones fumble and ran it back for a touchdown.
Beamer told reporters it was a statement, to some degree. After all, it was the first major win of his tenure at South Carolina and winning cures plenty of ills.
Saturday, though, the missteps of weeks past returned.
The offensive line that’s been maligned all fall couldn’t match the five-man fronts Missouri sent its way. Defenders ran free at quarterback Jason Brown play after play — the most dooming of which resulted in a strip sack that was recovered by Irmo High product Trajan Jeffcoat in the end zone for a touchdown. Saturday also marked just the second time this season the Tigers recorded three sacks in a Southeastern Conference game.
Brown, speaking after the game, shouldered the blame for the miscommunications up front, but there’s only so much that falls on a signal-caller when he’s running from defenders almost every dropback.
“I mean, it should have got picked up, but there was just some miscommunication up front with me and the O-line,” Brown said. “And that’s what happens — we miscommunicate, you’re going to get pressure.”
South Carolina’s defense — as good as it has been this year — again struggled to stop the run against a tailback in Tyler Badie that leads the SEC in rushing after 10 games. The crisp tackling and swarming mentality that had been there throughout the fall disappeared.
Badie bounced off tacklers as the Missouri offensive line sealed edges for him. When the edges were clogged, coach Eli Drinkwitz and his staff dialed up counters to spring him free again. The adjustments added up to a night where Badie finished with 209 yards on 34 touches, including the game-ending first down.
“With him being a shorter back, it’s kind of hard to find (him),” linebacker Brad Johnson said of Badie — who stands just 5-foot-8. “So I feel like some guys were trying to try to find him and he got lost.”
Beamer has largely remained upbeat in a season that has ebbed and flowed as erratically as a rubber duck floating through a monsoon. And, in fairness, he’s right to have stuck with a cheery tone despite shortcomings.
Three different quarterbacks have started — and won — games for the Gamecocks this season. An overhauled defense that projected as a fatal flaw ranks tops in the SEC in takeaways. Even the running game has shown in spurts, albeit limited ones.
It’s reasons like those why nights like Saturday are so frustrating for a team that’s on the verge of a colossal over-achievement if it were to reach the postseason.
Most didn’t expect this South Carolina squad to be in the position it is. Now that the Gamecocks are here, though, they have to cash in on their opportunities.
“We’re two games into November,” Beamer said. “And we talk about ‘(People) remember November,’ and we’ve got an opportunity to go back home to finish out our season at Williams-Brice Stadium these next two weeks.”
Saturday was a misstep, a major one at that. It might also have been South Carolina’s best chance at a bowl eligibility-clinching win the rest of the year. But USC’s season hasn’t gone up in flames just yet.
Two games remain. The Gamecocks have to win one to reach the postseason. If they can’t, it’s the 13th of November South Carolina will remember.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 9:48 PM.
