USC-Vanderbilt Rewind & Preview Carolina/Auburn Game

Looking back on Saturday night’s game between South Carolina and Vanderbilt can only be described as one thing – UGLY football. Neither team neither distinguished itself on offense nor looked in sync a majority of the game, while the defenses took advantage of the ineptitude of both offenses. If I were not writing this blog, I would have turned the channel to watch another football game. It was absolutely painful to view this entire game. I can envision a lot of embarrassment on the faces of Gamecock football players as they watch film today of their performance on Saturday night. South Carolina looked dysfunctional and flat out overmatched versus Vanderbilt’s defense. I know the elephant in the room for Monday morning quarterbacks is Stephen Garcia, but let’s not ignore other elements of the USC offensive unit that have not lived up to expectations through four games. I called Stephen Garcia’s performance Saturday night, Beecheresque (do you remember the four-interceptions Tommy Beecher threw in the first half of the 2008 home opener versus N.C. State? We never saw Beecher again in a USC uniform.). The bottom line is Carolina is 4-0 through one-third of the schedule and has not played to the level we the fans were expecting. Now let’s look in the rearview mirror at specifically what went wrong Saturday night, and what we can expect moving forward as the schedule begins to get tougher.

I’ll flip-flop my observations today and begin with the criticisms from Saturday night:

→ 5th-year senior quarterback Stephen Garcia has reached his plateau! He looks like a guy who has missed several spring practices, doesn’t trust his offensive line, unable to progress through his passing reads and is very uncomfortable standing in the pocket after 1-4 seconds has elapsed post-snap. If you watched Garcia closely Saturday night, he has what football junkies call “happy feet,” which means as he drops back in the pocket and scans the field for wide receivers he never sets his feet, when it is time to release the football downfield to a WR. If a quarterback does not set his feet before he throws the football, typically the ball is uncatchable and results in a turnover or incomplete pass. I know the offensive line did not have their best game last Saturday night, but Garcia had time to throw the ball, and, unfortunately, as a 5th-year senior, he has not progressed as pocket-passing quarterback. If you watch Garcia closely the rest of the season count to one-Mississippi, etc… and notice the longer Garcia stands in the pocket the less-successful he is as a quarterback. I think 1-4 seconds after the snap is the best completion percentage for Garcia. If Garcia stands in the pocket for more than four seconds his completion percentage drops considerably. Through four games, he is 52 of 95 in completions versus attempts, which translates to a 55% completion percentage (unacceptable for a 5th year senior!). Let’s not forget two of Garcia’s completions on Saturday night accounted for almost half of his passing yards, 228 total passing yards. The 52-yard screen pass that Lattimore converted into a touchdown at the end of the first half and the 51-yard ricochet pass that Ace Sanders caught in the second half were very fortunate plays. I think Steve Spurrier is trying to fit a square peg (pro-style offense with Garcia & Shaw) into a round hole (Shaw & Garcia are more spread-type QBs) and the whole “Shaw starting the ECU game” has blown up in Spurrier’s face. After Saturday’s game, please let’s no longer put Spurrier & QB guru in the same sentence. Spurrier has not produced a quarterback in six-plus years at USC except for brief success in late 2006 with Blake Mitchell at the helm.

→ 12 Interceptions is an astonishing number of turnovers from the quarterback position, but that is a statistic that Stephen Garcia has compiled in the last six games, per The State. In contrast, Garcia has thrown only five touchdowns in that same span of games. Garcia is a turnover machine and the sad part is that the turnovers are just very bad decisions from a 5th-year senior QB. Whether Garcia is throwing into double coverage, there is a lack of communication with his receivers or he just does not comprehend the offense he is trying to execute the fact of the matter is we are stuck with no better options on the roster. Teams are continuing to double team Jefferey, yet Garcia tries to force the ball to his All-American WR. BTW, Jefferey was the intended WR on all four INTs Saturday night – enough said! Garcia continues to lock onto Alshon Jefferey, and, until Garcia concentrates his eyes downfield and pass patterns develop the Carolina offense will stay in a funk!

→Where are the weapons in the wide receiver corps? Here is a sad statistic: Melvin Ingram has scored more touchdowns, three, than the entire WR corps, two, per The State. I think whoever is evaluating the talent of our wide receivers better go back and re-evaluate, because our wide receivers are not improving and that includes Alshon Jefferey. We were told in pre-season that Carolina had the most weapons on offense under Spurrier in seven years, but I beg to differ. I do not see an explosive offense! I see predictable play-calling and no infusion of upgraded talent in the wide receiving unit, which leads to opposing teams placing eight to nine players close to the line of scrimmage to stop Marcus Lattimore. Vanderbilt did just that, holding Lattimore 100 yards below his average. Maybe freshman WR Damiere Byrd, who will make his debut this Saturday, can inject some life into a subpar component of Carolina’s offense versus Auburn.

I could go on and on about the rancid play of the offense Saturday night, but let’s switch to the defense that pieced together its best performance since 1987 versus Wake Forest, per The State.

→ 37.5% (18 of 48 total plays) of Vanderbilt’s plays were for negative yardage. The defensive line finally came to play on Saturday night. This unit received a lot of accolades in pre-season about how dominating it would be in 2011. Well it took until game four, but Brad Lawing’s crew finally demonstrated its prowess Saturday night and unfortunately for Vanderbilt it was lights-outs time! The d-line played behind the line of scrimmage the entire game wreaking havoc in the backfield and being disruptive for 60 minutes. Freshman sensation Jadeveon Clowney forced two fumbles Saturday night with one leading to a USC touchdown by Melvin Ingram. Clowney also recorded two more sacks, which places the Rock Hill native atop the SEC leaders in sacks. Coincidentally, Ingram also recorded his first two sacks of the year versus Vanderbilt. The defensive end combo of Clowney, Ingram, Taylor and Sutton has combined for seven sacks in four games and just dominated Vanderbilt’s o-line all night long! These four players combined for five sacks and seven tackles for loss that accumulated 83 negative yards for Vanderbilt, per The State.

→ Stifling USC Defense! Ellis Johnson and Lorenzo Ward finally fixed some mistakes in practice, and the results on the field were a resounding success. IMHO, this was the first game since last year’s Alabama game that the USC defense flew to the football and punished opposing ball carriers. My impression was that the entire defense, especially the Secondary, really improved its tackling. I thought the cornerbacks and safeties really defended the bubble screens consistently all night long, especially Gilmore, Hampton, Allen, Hollomon, Swearinger, Whitlock and Markett. The USC defense gave up 77 total yards and three points after giving up an average of 372 yards per game and 33 points/per game. The Vanderbilt offense converted 1/14 third-down conversions (7%) and that lone conversion didn’t happen until late fourth quarter, four yards rushing on 25 attempts, 73 passing yards on 16 completions, which included a 20-yard completion in the 4th quarter and five total first downs. Now let’s not disregard the fact that Vanderbilt has absolutely one of the worst offenses in the history of SEC football. The Commodores starting quarterback, Larry Smith, is, at best, a junior varsity QB at the high school level. But the defense rose up and bailed out the Gamecocks on a night where the USC offense sputtered all game long. Let’s remember in the last six quarters our Rush Defense has given up 63 total yards rushing! That is improvement and hopefully a building block.

→ Running Backs and Non-offensive TDs! Even though the running lanes were slim pickings against the Commodores’ defense (top 4 in the SEC), I thought Lattimore and freshman Brandon Wilds were effective enough to keep the defense honest. Lattimore was his usual self (nice 22-yard TD run) even though he was held in check for most of the night (the o-line did not provide many running lanes for any of the RBs or QBs). Wilds impressed me with his vision and toughness late in the game as he demonstrated on his late 16-yard gain. Wilds had 3 rushes for 22 yards for a nice 7.3 average.
Once again, the USC defense produces points. The same tandem, Clowney forcing the fumble & Ingram scoring the touchdown, that produced a defensive TD late in the UGA game collaborated in manufacturing the first Carolina touchdown Saturday night in the first quarter. Carolina is using this recipe to tally up victories on this young season, and if the front four can continually get pressure on the opposing QB then Carolina’s defense will remain the beneficiaries of its opponent’s mistakes.

A friend said it best Saturday night. “A win is a win is a win. Go Cocks & pass the whiskey!” With eight regular season games left, Carolina fans might need to seek a non-sobering approach to stomach the remainder of the season, because if these offensive inconsistencies do not get cured then this football team will hover around .500 as the season grows longer. I am anxious for the Auburn match-up to see if Ellis Johnson & Lorenzo Ward has remedied the deficiencies of defending the spread option, i.e. Auburn & Gus Malzahn.

The next blog post will be Wednesday afternoon, where I will provide some USC/Auburn tidbits, Spurspective’s SEC Power Index & more in-depth thoughts on the inconsistent USC QB play.

Go Gamecocks!