USC zeroes in on offensive struggles after Ole Miss loss, Shane Beamer says
Shane Beamer arrived at South Carolina’s facility at 5:15 a.m. Sunday, the 27-3 loss to Ole Miss still gnawing at him.
His meetings didn’t start for nearly six hours — an offensive staff meeting at 11 a.m., defense at 11:45 and everyone together at 12:30 — but “I wanted to make sure I got in here with plenty of time before I met with the offensive staff,” Beamer said during his Sunday teleconference.
“We certainly had a very thorough meeting.,” he added. “And you look at everything, but realizing that yesterday was nowhere near good enough, and we’ve got to be better.”
Namely on offense, where concerns formed in the first half and never faded. The Gamecocks (3-2, 1-2 SEC) started the second half with possession, down 21. Its offense was methodically marching to nothing, taking lick after lick of the Tootsie Pop but never committing to a bite.
Certainly, the Gamecocks would have to do more, right? All the runs up the middle and the quick out routes to tight end Josh Simon were being used to set up something, right?
ESPN color commentator Dusty Dvoracek certainly thought so, saying this during the Gamecocks’ first drive of the second half:
“At what point do you take your shot?” He asked. “Continue to run the football, but at some point you have to play-action pass and try to push this football down the field.”
The shot never came.
Quarterback LaNorris Sellers finished the day completing 20 of 32 passes for 162 yards. Worse: Just one of his passes managed to travel over 20 yards. It was early in the second quarter, on third-and-15, when Sellers rolled left and fired a 22-yard pass to Simon in the end zone. It fell incomplete.
Which means for the final 40 minutes of a football game that South Carolina never led, the Gamecocks never took a chance downfield. They never tried even one 50-50 ball. Never just chucked one up and prayed for pass interference.
Nothing.
Late in the game. Sellers did throw an incomplete pass from the 29-yard line to receiver Dalevon Campbell in the end zone. But that pass didn’t count because Ole Miss was offsides and the pass wasn’t caught.
Still, how is it that in a game when South Carolina could get nothing going, it never tried? Is that on offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains? Is it on Sellers for just not throwing deep? Is it on the offensive line for not affording Sellers enough time? Is it on the receivers for not getting open?
“We’ve got to be willing to take (those shots),” Beamer said, “and call them and throw the ball down the field.”
Now, Ole Miss baited South Carolina into its philosophy. The Rebels played extremely soft coverage. They gave USC’s receivers space, allowing the the Gamecocks short passes but trying to protect against getting beat deep. Still, Beamer said, his offense needs to have answers.
A solution would be for receivers to make catches, break tackles and bolt upfield for chunk yardage. Too often, though, the Gamecocks were going down on first contact, an observation backed up by numbers. The Gamecocks averaged just 5 yards after the catch, per Pro Football Focus, compared with 11 from Ole Miss’ offense.
But that doesn’t excuse South Carolina’s offense from abiding by the Rebels’ coverage. It’s fine to take what the defense gives you — if it’s moving the chains and generating scoring chances.
“We can’t say, ‘OK, they’re playing loose coverage,’ ” Beamer noted. “We’ve still got to be able to run past people.and go up and make competitive catches on 50-50 balls, which we’ve shown that we can do also.”
And perhaps this would all be a moot point if South Carolina was cleaner in its execution.
There was the third-down pass underneath to Jared Brown, who would’ve picked up 20 yards if not for tripping on the grass and stumbling to the ground. There was the beautifully drawn-up red-zone play in the fourth quarter, when receiver Gage Larvadain ran in motion and could have hauled in the easiest 11-yard score of his life, but Sellers was well out of range.
This list could go on and on.
“When you score three points, it’s nowhere near good enough,” Beamer said.
South Carolina game this week
Who: South Carolina at Alabama
When: Saturday, Oct. 12, noon
Where: Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
TV: ABC
This story was originally published October 6, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
