South Carolina/Mississippi State Review: Good, Bad & Ugly

The Gamecocks took care of business down in Starkville, MS on Saturday afternoon, but, in the process, lost the heart & soul of their team. A cliché that teams use in sports is a costly victory. What price is too high for a victory? Would you trade Marcus Lattimore’s health for the win USC earned against Mississippi State? IMHO, I’ll take a win every single time in the SEC. I am not belittling the loss of Lattimore, because the sophomore sensation is truly a dynamic playmaker and leader of this offense, but let’s not fool ourselves USC fans---our offensive line isn’t exactly opening running lanes for anybody, much less for Lattimore. I don’t think there are any running backs on our offense that can produce with zero blocking! My heart goes out to Lattimore and his family. I hate to see any athlete suffer an injury, but there is no doubt in my mind that Marcus Lattimore will come back with a vengeance in 2012. A win is a win no matter how ugly the win is. Football is a violent sport and, more times than not, players get hurt when the player becomes a spectator versus a participant. On the play where Lattimore got hurt, Ellington had run past the defender that Lattimore was engaging in a block. As the MSU defensive back disengaged Lattimore to tackle Ellington, a second defender dove at Ellington’s legs to make a tackle; the MSU defender missed Ellington and subsequently rolled into Lattimore’s left knee just as the sophomore sensation planted his left leg. I felt sick to my stomach seeing Lattimore go down, and I knew instantly that South Carolina was going to have to win the SEC East without its Heisman hopeful lining up in the backfield. So let’s take a look at the Good, Bad & the Ugly from the USC/MSU game and peer down the road to see what changes need to happen on offense for USC to have a chance to repeat as SEC East Division champs.

The Good:
→South Carolina is now bowl eligible for the eighth straight season, seven under Steve Spurrier. Don’t ever underestimate being bowl eligible!

→The Gamecocks have won five consecutive road games for the first time in school history. Dating back to last year’s Vanderbilt game, USC has beaten Vanderbilt, Florida, Clemson, Georgia and Mississippi State consecutively.

→South Carolina is 9-4 in their last thirteen SEC contests. Contrastly Florida is 6-7!

→Steve Spurrier won his 50th game at South Carolina. SOS is now 50-34 in less than seven full seasons at South Carolina. That is a 60% winning percentage with not a lot of talent for a majority of the first five years. Spurrier is second all-time on USC’s Career Wins List for USC football coaches, trailing only Rex Enright (64 all-time wins).

→The Gamecocks are now 2-0 against Green Bay Packers lineage. Brett Favre’s nephew, Dylan Favre, threw an incomplete pass on Saturday and USC defeated Vanderbilt when Jordan Rodgers, Aaron Rodgers’ brother, came into the game to relieve Larry Smith at quarterback.

→SOS is now 2-0 playing in Starkville, MS as USC’s head coach. While at Florida, Spurrier was 0-2 in games played in Starkville. Overall at South Carolina, Steve Spurrier is 6-0 versus teams from the Magnolia State (3-0 record versus MSU, 2-0 record versus Ole Miss and 1-0 versus Southern Miss).

→Connor Shaw was 8-8 passing the football in the second half on Saturday. Overall he was 20-28 (71%) on Pass Completions to Pass Attempts. Shaw only accumulated 155 passing yards, but the sophomore is demonstrating the ability to complete passes that his predecessor was unable to complete on a consistent basis.

→Turnovers du jour: South Carolina forced two more turnovers on Saturday (two INTs) to remain tied with Rutgers atop the FBS in Turnovers Gained with 24 total turnovers forced. South Carolina is tied for second in FBS with Rutgers with 14 Interceptions on the season.

→Red Zone Audible: Steve Spurrier said that on the game-winning touchdown pass to Jeffrey that Connor Shaw audibled at the line of scrimmage after reading the MSU defensive alignment. Originally, SOS called for a quick slant with Shaw throwing to Jeffrey, but the Bulldogs defense gave Shaw a different look. The Flowery Branch, GA native audibled to a jump ball to Alshon Jeffrey, and the Calhoun County native was on the same page as his quarterback and made a tremendous catch in traffic.

→The USC defense has now surrendered 53 points to its last five opponents (4-1), which equates to 10.6 points per game. South Carolina’s defenders have forced 16 turnovers (twelve INTs & four fumbles) in the last 20 quarters! Also, Ellis Johnson’s stop troops held a third SEC offense to under 300 total yards this season (Vanderbilt & Kentucky as well).

→The USC Pass Defense held redshirt freshman Tyler Russell to 11-30 pass completions-to-pass attempts for 37% completion rate, one TD Pass and two INTs. The front four got relentless pressure all day long and, if not for continuous non-holding calls by the zebras, the Carolina front four would have had even more of an impact on this game. The Gamecocks are ranked second in Pass Defense (trailing only Michigan State) in FBS, per NCAA.

→South Carolina now ranks 9th in FBS Total Defense rankings. There are four SEC teams in the top nine (Alabama, 1st, LSU, 4th and UGA 8th).

→Safety D.J. Swearinger had 12 tackles and sealed the victory with his late fourth quarter interception of MSU's qurterback Tyler Russell.

→The hard hits the Carolina defense handed out to the MSU skill position players all game long.

The Bad:

→21 plays (of 75 total) USC ran for no gain or a loss on offense versus Mississippi State, per Ron Morris of The State newspaper.

→20% (3/15) Third-Down Conversion Rate for South Carolina!

→2.6 yards per rush for the USC offense! Carolina totaled 110 yards rushing on 43 attempts after subtracting 36 yards in negative plays.

→Run Blocking is a serious issue for USC moving forward. There is not a single starting o-line player for Carolina who should feel good about his performance over the last four games (Vanderbilt, Auburn, Kentucky and MSU). I don’t care if USC had Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith or Jim Brown lining up in the backfield on Saturday against Mississippi State, no running back can gain positive yardage when there are ZERO running lanes to run! USC o-line coach Sean Elliott has to make some personnel changes to get some momentum going into the home stretch of games if this USC offense is going to be successful.

→3rd-Down Conversion Defensive Rate of the USC Defense was porous on Saturday, allowing the Bulldogs to convert 44% (7/16) on third-down opportunities, especially third & long distances!

The Ugly:

→ACL injury to RB Marcus Lattimore was a devastating blow to the USC offense. By the end of the game, South Carolina had only one healthy running back, Brandon Wilds, on its travel roster.

→The gamblers, who saw $30 million dollars, transfer back to the bookies on the safety that the Gamecocks took instead of punting the ball back to MSU on the final play of the game.

→SEC Officiating is getting worse and worse as the season grows longer. You cannot tell me that a defensive line that includes Ingram, Clowney and Taylor can only get one sack versus a patchwork MSU o-line! Quit swallowing the whistles SEC refs! How come, in a 14-12 SEC slobber knocker, Mississippi State only gets flagged for one penalty for seven yards???

My next blog will be Wednesday.

Go Gamecocks!