It was Halloween weekend in Columbia, SC, and South Carolina came dressed in the costume as the ”Same ole Gamecocks,” the ones that always find a way to lose after a huge potentially program-changing win the week before.
All the good things the Gamecocks had gained during their four-game winning streak and national No. 25 ranking went up in smoke in their 23-10 loss to Missouri on Homecoming in front of a sellout crowd of 77,578 fans.
The Gamecocks offense was flatter than a dead opossum on a country road, and the Carolina fans were treated to a Charlie Brown bag of rocks for their trick-or-treat afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium. South Carolina only had two drives of significance.
Missouri Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz shared his feelings after the game.
“Just incredibly proud of our football team,” he said. “A Top 25 win on the road, and a sellout crowd. We did a great job ignoring the noise, did a really good job of playing complimentary football. All three flat phases held their own tonight. No self-inflicted wounds and in this league to play that kind of game when we really had to have it was impressive.
“Proud of our leadership. You know, Tez gave an emotional pregame speech, and our guys were ready to play and didn’t flinch. They really only had two drives of significance and didn’t flinch and offensively I thought we started really hot. It was good.”
The South Carolina defense and special teams have carried
an inept offense all season long but were not up to the task on Saturday. With five minutes to go in the first half, the Gamecock offense had only produced one first down and 62 yards of total offense and things did not get any better in the second half.
“I understand the frustration,” South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said after the game. “We flat out laid an egg tonight. After every game, I’ve always talked about what tonight was not good enough in any phase, and start with me, but, like every game, win or lose, we always get back to work on Sunday morning and see what the issues are what we did well, what we didn’t do well. But certainly tonight, we were not good enough, and we gotta figure out how to be better.”
“We sure looked like a team on film in all three phases — in the first quarter we looked like a team that was on our heels,” he continued. “We just assumed everything was going to be okay and we were waiting for something to happen. I told the team that in this conference, it’s a push and grind every single week. You better be at your best. We were not at our best as coaches or players tonight. It starts with me. The only thing we can do is go back to work, but no weeks are ever easy, especially here on out.”
Gamecock quarterback Spencer Rattler expressed his concerns about the offense in the post-game press conference.
“I don’t know, we just have to get better at everything,” he said. “Credit to Missouri, they gave us tough looks all night long with their blitzes and their pressures. The way they got after us. It was tough to get the drop back passing game going. I don’t feel like we had a good idea of knowing what to do. I would say is that what we need to get better, in just preparing and knowing what to do.”
Throughout the game, you could hear the chants to fire Offensive Coordinator Marcus Satterfield! Satterfield’s offense has under-achieved in his two years at South Carolina. The Gamecocks have the talent to be good on offense but have never found a way to get the ball in the hands of their playmakers. Offensive play maker Jaheim Bell had zero touches and zero targets in Saturday’s game.
“We have a lot of great playmakers on our offense at receiver, running back and tight end,” Beamer said. “When you run 53 plays on offense and you are only 5 of 13 on third down, it’s hard to play a lot of plays and get all of those guys the football.”
The Missouri offense was dominating in their performance over the Gamecocks scoring 17 quick points on three of their first four possessions. Carolina came in with a four-game winning streak and in the national rankings for the first time since early in the 2018 season.
The Tigers moved the ball consistently on offense and were dominant on defense to totally take apart South Carolina .After the game, linebacker Debo Williams who led the Gamecocks in tackles with nine, said they have to move past Saturday’s performance and get ready to head to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt.
“Every week is a new week,” Williams said. “Say we lost the last two weeks, we have to come like we won both of those weeks. Every week we are preparing to play our best. Even with injuries, next man up and you have to play your best. That is all that you can ever do. Just try to execute everything that we are given. We just have to keep going.”
The Gamecocks must now try to put the pieces back together as they try to become bowl eligible next week when they travel to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt in a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Lindy’s Sports Post-game Coaches Corner: Missouri 23 South Carolina 10
