South Carolina football lost its second consecutive game against Florida No. 3. We examine what went wrong in our game conclusions.
The South Carolina Gamecocks traveled to Gainesville, Florida, to face the Florida Gators and reached game 1-3 against the Gators under the management of coach Will Muschamp.
The Gators were 15-2 at home against the Gamecocks and they added another game to the winning column by defeating South Carolina 38-24.
The Gamecocks again started off strong, scoring a touchdown in their initial charge, but several missed balls and a lack of defense prevented them from finishing strongly.
What did we learn?
3. Offensive errors
Many balls fell. History end.
Collin Hill posted just 28 of 47 conclusions for 212 yards and two touchdowns. Most of the time, Hill launched at the target, but the ball was dropped by the defense of the Gators or, when the ball reached the recipients’ hands, it was dropped. That was certainly a big part of the Gamecocks’ defeat.
It wouldn’t hurt for Gamecocks to turn defenders as well, as Hill said because of his previous knee injuries, he won’t be a hurried defender. He stayed open most of the game, even though he was fired four times, and ran the ball a few times when he had no other option. Shi Smith, who is Hill’s most trusted receiver, was also the most targeted and there were several opportunities where a running quarterback could have moved the ball.
The Gamecocks dominated the field in race yards, finishing 117 against the Gators’ 80 yards.
2. Defensive fights
The Gamecocks defensive line failed to stop Kyle Trask and his offensive line. The Florida quarterback ended his game with 21 of 29 submissions for 268 yards and four touchdown passes.
The Gamecocks managed to force two turnovers, one through an interception and the other through a fumble recovery, but were unable to stop the running game of Dameon Pierce or the passing game between Trask and the main recipients Kadarius Toney, Kyle Pitts and Trent Whittemore.
South Carolina recorded only 59 tackles in total as a team, with five loss tackles, three pass deviations and two sacks.
1. Time and game management
Just like last week’s game against Tennessee, Muschamp asked the questionable question to bring Parker White to kick a field goal instead of attempting his first takedown in a fourth and two situations. While White placed the ball on the goal posts, she could have seven points on the board instead of three or less than a gap.
The team also made the questionable decision to exceed the game clock in the final minutes of the game, when they lost by 14 points. When time was of the essence and they needed to move the ball quickly, they let the clock run with each move and ran, instead of making any attempt to pass to move the ball further down the field and potentially into the final zone.
The technical team and the offensive and defensive lines need to be on the same page if South Carolina has any hope of winning against a rather difficult SEC lineup in the next eight weeks. As with the games that were canceled this season, there are some games that should be “marked with wins” when the schedule is released, but at this rate, South Carolina may not even achieve that.
The Gamecocks face Vanderbilt next week, which they defeated 11 times in a row. Hopefully, it will be number 12 after next week’s game.