USC-UNC: Thumbs up, thumbs down

Where did THAT come from? He had 16 percent of his career yardage on Thursday, and scored the go-ahead touchdown. As he put it, “The other guys were banged up. They needed me.”

A 46.2-yard average on five punts, a 17-yard run on the first fake punt attempt of his life and a tackle when UNC tried to run a missed field goal out of the end zone. Rumor says he cooked the post-game meal.

A thankless task of covering a massive middle of the field in a Cover-2 defense, Moore still had two of the biggest plays of the game. He denied two UNC touchdowns with end-zone interceptions, the last which decided the game.

Still really, really good at football. Three catches for 45 yards and a touchdown, four rushes for 20 yards and he completed a pass. And shook off cramps in a tender knee after being overthrown on a fade route to the end zone.

With an asterisk, because it’s awfully hard to get a pass-rush against an offense that throws it within two seconds of receiving it. The Gamecocks’ new pass-rush specialist had four tackles, but just one hurry.

He settled in after misfiring early, and really looked good as he got the Gamecocks back in the contest. Whatever he said to the UNC sideline after a first-down pickup (he said it was just “What’s up?”), though, killed a drive that at the time, USC really needed to finish.

Giving receivers a whole lot of room off the line seemed a recipe for disaster against a quick-strike offense — and North Carolina rolled up 440 yards.

Steve Spurrier admitted it. He had no business going for a fourth-and-1 with his backup quarterback when a field goal would have meant, at worst, a tie game on the next possession. Everything turned out OK, but that call ended a puzzling second half where the Gamecocks stayed away from the zone read that had gotten them back in the ballgame.

David Cloninger

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 11:26 PM.