Chaz Sutton records a sack against Vanderbilt in the first quarter. (Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports)
Putting together a 60 minute game has been a tough assignment this season so far for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Last week, the defense came under siege, allowing Georgia 227 yards on the ground as the Bulldogs took a 41-30 win. Saturday night, while nursing an insurmountable 35-10 lead, it was the special teams that had a pair of fumbles on returns that kept what was a Gamecocks romp interesting until the final gun of the 35-25 win.
In fact, the Gamecocks scored on their first four possessions of to take a 28-0 lead over the Vanderbilt Commodores before the first momentum shift when Dylan Thompson threw in double coverage and Vandy corner Steven Clarke picked off the pass and returned it 69 yards to the Gamecocks 1-yard line, setting up the first Commodores’ score.
Then, midway through the third quarter, USC picked up a holding penalty after a first down on a screen pass from Connor Shaw to Bruce Ellington; subsequently, a 19-yard punt set the Commodores up on the South Carolina 49. They converted 10 plays later on a one-yard Austyn Carta-Samuels run.
“I got really upset when we got that holding penalty right in front of our bench,” said Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, “Bruce [Ellington] had made a first down, so we go backwards and then we get a procedure penalty and then we almost make it. We got fourth and two, we’re up 25 points and then we kick a 15 yarder (on a punt).”
Vandy made it’s own breaks as on the ensuing kickoff, a fumble recovery of a Shon Carson return early in the fourth quarter set up a Carta-Samuels touchdown pass on a middle screen to Wesley Tate. The Commodores took advantage of the special teams gaff and cut it to 35-25 with 13:59 remaining.
“Our special team play, I told Coach Robinson, we’ve got to get you some better players out there,” said Spurrier, explaining the totality of how the miscues on special teams actually made this game closer than the scoreboard read, “I don’t know what we’re doing but we don’t make anything happen and even the good kickoffs, we were running back to the 30 and so forth. We’ve got to get better there but overall it was a good game.”
It’s All Good Though: Really the positives far outweighed the negatives for South Carolina on Saturday night. The Gamecocks struck paydirt on their first four drives as they engineered drives of 58, 93, 76, and 92 yards, capped with Shaw throwing his second TD pass of the night, a 26-yarder to Eillington for that 28-0 lead with 7:26 to go in the first half.
“Connor played very well, Dylan (Thompson) came in and hit some nice ones early, ran and made a good play, and had one sort of careless pass,” said Spurrier.
On the defensive: It was clear early of the immense difference in quickness and team speed in South Carolina’s defensive line when matched up with the Commodores’ offensive front.
Kelcy Quarles and Chaz Sutton ended both of Vanderbilt’s first two drives with sacks on third down. Jadeveon Clowney checked in with his second sack of the season, which was supplemented with a forced fumble later in the game.
The positives from the front were certainly welcomed after the tough time it had last week in the loss to Georgia.
“We just tried to get back to the basics,” said defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward, “I think that I started doing too many things with the young guys so we just tried to go back to the basics and play football and do some of the things that we have done here for a long time.”
