The South Carolina Gamecocks dropped their second game of the season Saturday afternoon, falling to the Ole Miss Rebels by a score of 27-3. Coming off the early bye, Shane Beamer’s squad was hoping to make another statement, but instead found themselves outmatched on both sides of the ball.
After dropping a crucial game last Saturday to the Kentucky Wildcats at home, Lane Kiffin clearly had his team ready to play. The Rebels walked into a rowdy Williams-Brice Stadium and quickly quieted the Gamecocks faithful. Many had hoped the week off would help Carolina come out with some sort of edge, but this wasn’t the case.
Instead, the Gamecocks looked flat for the majority of the contest. Not only that, but it appears that Beamer and his staff have more questions than they did before the bye. With so much to unpack from Saturday’s loss, let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from South Carolina’s week five matchup.
New Low for the Offensive Line
Coming into the bye week, the biggest area of concern for the Gamecocks was without question the offensive line. Pass protection in particular was a massive problem for Carolina over the first several weeks of the season. The hope was that given an extra week to work out some of the kinks, the group would come out looking at least somewhat improved in the face of an imposing Ole Miss front seven.
These hopes were quickly dashed, however, as the offensive line turned in one of the worst performances we’ve seen in the Beamer era. In his first start back from injury, quarterback LaNorris Sellers was sacked a whopping six times on the day. The Rebels also racked up 10 tackles for a loss as well.
With the season already approaching the halfway mark, it’s unlikely we see any meaningful improvements in the pass protection department. Unfortunately, at this point, it appears that the offensive line just is what it is. It’s now up to Beamer and the offensive staff to find ways to mitigate their shortcomings. It helps when you have a mobile quarterback like Sellers, but there’s only so much he can do.
It will be interesting to see what adjustments Carolina is able to make down the stretch to provide Sellers with at least some level of protection. If they’re unable to do so, however, Saturday may only be a glimpse of what’s to come.
Carolina’s Penalty Woes Continue
Another unfortunate trend that continued for the Gamecocks was the penalty issues we saw cripple them against LSU. Carolina was flagged eight times on the day for 90 total yards. Several of these were costly offsides penalties that extended Ole Miss drives, while two other offensive pass interference calls stalled out what could have been promising Carolina drives.
Perhaps the most egregious penalty of the day though, was committed by freshman pass rusher Dylan Stewart late in the third quarter. With his team already down by 21 points, Stewart made a spectacular play on third down that resulted in a sack on Jaxson Dart. After securing what should have been a drive-ending sack, Stewart proceeded to stand over Dart and fire an imaginary gun into the Rebels quarterback.
This naturally drew an unsportsmanlike penalty from the refs, and as a result, Ole Miss gained 15 yards and an automatic first down. The sack and ensuing penalty would end up having a negligible effect on the outcome of the game, but it underscored the lack of discipline Carolina played with. Beamer touched on his teams penalty problems after the game and took the blame for their lack of discipline.
“We were undisciplined, to say the least, today,” Beamer said. “That starts with me as the head coach. You talk about multiple offsides penalties, a taunting penalty, two offensive pass interference penalties. We have to burn a timeout on that last drive on a critical third or fourth downplay because we can’t get lined up the correct way. Really, disappointing. That is completely on me.”
Simply put, Carolina cannot afford to keep committing these types of mistakes. It already lost them a game against LSU and made an already bad loss that much worse against Ole Miss.
Rebel Offense Too Much for Gamecocks
On top of all the self-inflicted errors and lack of pass protection, the normally stout Carolina defense also faltered against an elite Ole Miss offense. As was mentioned above, the Gamecocks did have several costly offsides penalties. That being said, most of the issues for the defense were simply due to the Rebels having better players.
Ole Miss arguably has the best offense in the country, led by arguably the best quarterback in the country. While the Gamecocks certainly have talented players of their own, the simple fact is the Rebels players were better.
Their counterparts on offense did little to help out either, putting the defense in multiple short-field situations. A costly turnover and questionable fake punt decision early on practically handed Ole Miss two touchdowns. Beamer spoke about his defense’s performance following the game, and how offensive errors put them in some tough spots.
“I thought they did a decent job,” Beamer said. “Obviously we gave up 27 points. “Like I said, we put them in some tough spots in the first quarter field position wise with the fake punt and turnovers. For the most part, I thought they did OK. I don’t think we got. A takeaway so that was obviously a disappointing part. Obviously, when you lose the game and you give up 27 points, not good enough.”
When you’re facing a superior opponent, playing complimentary football is imperative. Unfortunately for Carolina, this just didn’t happen. When your defense is asked to defend multiple short fields against an opponent like Ole Miss, things aren’t going to end well. We saw that firsthand today in Columbia, and the results were about as expected.
Final Thoughts
There’s no way to sugarcoat a 24-point loss at home coming off a bye week. Sure, Ole Miss is one of the best teams in the country with a massive talent advantage. This doesn’t excuse the self-inflicted errors we saw from the Gamecocks though. There was a lot of momentum behind this team heading into the bye week, but now it appears that’s all come to a screeching halt.
Now, it’s about how the team responds to adversity. The LSU loss hurt, but that was a competitive showing against a team many expected to blow Carolina out. This was a sucker punch, and things aren’t going to get any easier. It’s up to Beamer to rally his troops, and not let a loss like this derail what still has the potential to be a good season. If he can’t, then the powers that be at South Carolina may have some difficult decisions to make.
