Gamecock Mailbag: Why South Carolina’s protection issues returned at Missouri
South Carolina’s goals are still in front of it.
A 31-28 loss at Missouri on Saturday certainly makes things more difficult, but USC has two more chances at getting bowl-eligible with home games against Auburn and Clemson.
With that, let’s jump into a handful of questions from the week that was:
“If we knew that Mizzou is a one man team, their running back, why didn’t we stack the box on the defensive side & stop Badie from running. BTW he ran for over 200 yds .. the rest of Mizzou’s offense was not good” — John M.
Tyler Badie has been the Southeastern Conference’s best back and it hasn’t been particularly close.
Badie currently leads the league in rushing yards (1,239), rushing yards per game (123.9) and is second in rushing touchdowns (12).
That Badie gashed South Carolina shouldn’t come as a massive surprise. As good a job as Clayton White has done with this defense, the Gamecocks have struggled to stop the run all season. USC has allowed 230 or more yards rushing four separate times this year. Opponents are averaging just a shade under 170 rushing yards per game against head coach Shane Beamer’s bunch as well.
Facing an Auburn offense that’s armed with a physical runner in Tank Bigsby this coming week, White and his group have to find a way to better fit gaps and make tackles if USC is going to win.
“Was the offensive line pissed at Jason Brown? They didn’t pass block the whole game.” — Brian P.
Believe it or not, South Carolina’s pass-protection grades were actually about as good as they’ve been all season against Missouri.
The Gamecocks received a 66.3 out of 100 grade from Pro Football Focus — their second-best mark of the season. Where USC did struggle came when quarterback Jason Brown peeled out of the pocket earlier than need be.
Brown took responsibility for not sticking in the pocket longer. Beamer noted the same in his press conference at Missouri and doubled down on it during his Tuesday media event.
Heading into this weekend’s game against Auburn, Brown needs to hang in the pocket a touch longer and deliver throws as he did in the win against Florida. If he does, it only stands to help South Carolina’s struggling offense.
“What happened to the fullback?” — William B.
The fullback William is referring to is Trai Jones.
Jones got a handful of snaps during the Missouri game. The subpackage that’s been built for him has largely been used in short-yardage situations on third and fourth down.
That said, South Carolina only had three third-and-shorts against Missouri. The Gamecocks also threw the ball on two of its three fourth-down chances, which came at an average distance of 3.3 yards.
In short, there just weren’t many chances to employ that package. However, expect it to be included a bit more if South Carolina can get itself into more manageable third- and fourth-down situations against Auburn on Saturday.
Are we going to beat any Tigers this year? — Michael K.
I’ll get to my predictions in my final thoughts columns the next couple weeks, but I have my doubts.
Saturday’s loss at Missouri felt like a major missed opportunity. Auburn and Clemson have had their issues this year, but both are more talented teams than South Carolina on paper.
Need proof? USC ranks No. 22 nationally on 247Sports’ Team Talent Composite — which combines the recruiting grades of every player on a given roster and ranks teams based on the total number of recruiting points they possess. Clemson and Auburn rank fourth and 14th, respectively, by those same metrics.
This isn’t to say an upset isn’t possible — Florida, for example, ranks No. 7 in the Team Talent Composite. However, South Carolina’s offensive woes returned last week at Missouri and it’s hard to imagine anything changes drastically enough on that side of the ball for the Gamecocks to win either game ahead of it.
Ben’s Best
The coaching carousel is beginning to spin at a record pace — just take Shane Beamer’s ties to the newly open Virginia Tech job as evidence. Given that, here’s my ranking of the best jobs that have opened this fall:
- LSU
- USC
- Washington
- TCU
- Virginia Tech
Honorable Mentions
- Texas Tech (Filled)
- Georgia Southern (Filled)
- Washington State
