Advertisement
football Edit

Aftermath: Fourth quarter scare gives Gamecocks plenty of room to improve

Will Muschamp and South Carolina improved to 3-4 Saturday with a 34-28 win over UMass
Will Muschamp and South Carolina improved to 3-4 Saturday with a 34-28 win over UMass (Gamecock Central)


At the end of the third quarter Saturday afternoon, South Carolina held a seemingly comfortable 34-14 lead over Massachusetts and seemed on the verge of cruising home to a comfortable, confidence-building victory over the Minutemen at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Then the fourth quarter started.

Moments into the final frame, Chris Lammons fumbled a punt and the Minutemen recovered at the SC 30. However, Lammons atoned for his error by intercepting a pass inside the 10-yard line to give the ball back to the Gamecocks.

However, four plays later, Deebo Samuel (team-high 8 receptions for 106 yards) caught a short pass from freshman quarterback Jake Bentley and promptly fumbled. The loose ball was recovered by UMass at the SC 30.

This time, the Minutemen converted the turnover into points as the Gamecocks offered little resistance when UMass quarterback Andrew Ford, a 2014 Virginia Tech signee, scampered around left end for an 8-yard TD run with 9:59 left.

Ahead 34-21, but with momentum on UMass’ side, the Gamecocks needed to put together a time-consuming drive in order to drain the clock and kill the Minutemen’s comeback hopes.

David Williams (15 carries for 69 yards) gained eight yard on first down, handing the Gamecocks a very makeable second-and-shirt situation.

The next two plays gained. . .nothing.

UMass took over at their 26 with 8:00 remaining and drove 74 yards for a touchdown to cut USC’s lead to 34-28 with 4:32 left, throwing a major scare into the crowd of 73,428 at Williams-Brice.

Overall, UMass had three drives of 13+ plays in addition to the 74-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter moments after the Gamecocks had taken a 27-7 lead on a 24-yard fade pass from Jake Bentley to Bryan Edwards.

UMass amassed 389 yards, just six fewer yards than the Gamecocks, and ran 79 plays. The Minutemen had more first downs (23-21) and ran more plays (79-70) than the Gamecocks. Clearly, the four turnovers made a difference.

“When you gain four turnovers and have a fourth down stop, you’d like to feel good about it,” Muschamp said. “But we busted a coverage on the long touchdown right before half. We just didn’t play well defensively. A lot of the stuff we repped and went over in practice, so I was a little frustrated with our performance defensively. We’ll go back to work.”

The Gamecocks skirted disaster on the ensuing kickoff when A.J. Turner fumbled and picked up the loose football, only to be tackled at the 11-yard line.

With UMass possessing two timeouts, Bentley completed a 25-yard pass to Samuel out to the SC 42 before a pass interference call on UMass moved the ball into Minutemen territory. Another pass interference flag on second-and-16 gave UM a first down at the UM 35.

“The offense did a nice job finishing the game with that final drive,” Muschamp said. “We made some critical plays on that drive that were every good. They had two timeouts left and with the time left on the clock, we had a discussion to milk it or win it. We decided to go win the game.

“The throw to Deebo was supposed to be an inside seam route. They rotated coverage and he saw that. Deebo sat down in the slot. You couldn’t draw it up any better. He (Bentley) put the ball on him. To me, that was a big-time play.”

Dowdle secured the win with an 11-yard run on third-and-4 from the UM 29, and the Gamecocks went into victory formation in the final minute as UMass has exhausted their allotted timeouts.

“Rico finished the drive very well on that (11-yard) run when he bounced it and ran for daylight,” Muschamp said. “He also ran through a lot of contact. He is very strong in his lower body. We had to go win the game because defensively we weren’t stopping anybody.”

As soon as Dowdle picked up the first down, Gamecock Nation exhaled.

“We certainly made it interesting,” Muschamp said. “Obviously, we haven’t been in the position before of having a 20-point lead (after the third quarter). We didn’t handle it very well. We have to continue cleaning some things up.”

The fourth quarter won’t be remembered as USC’s finest quarter of football in 2016, but they made just enough plays in the final to keep UMass from completing an improbable comeback from a 20-point deficit.

As a college football philosopher once said, a win is a win. But the Gamecocks realize the sundry of mistakes committed in the first 11 minutes of the fourth quarter that came excruciately close to costing them the game will not suffice against the trio of SEC opponents they face over the next three weeks beginning with next Saturday night’s home game against Tennessee.

NOTES

-- RB David Williams scored on a pair of 1-yard touchdowns runs. They were his first rushing TDs since Nov. 22, 2014 against South Alabama. His 69 rushing yards were a season high.

-- Williams and Rico Dowdle combined for 156 rushing yards on 31 carries as redshirt freshman A.J. Turner did not have a carry for the first time this season. Coming into Saturday’s game, Turner had registered double digits carries in five of the first six games.

-- The 27 points the Gamecocks scored in the first half were the most by USC through 30 minutes since putting up 28 points against Furman on Oct. 18, 2014. USC also eclipsed 20 points for the first time this season.

-- The Gamecocks finished with a season high 194 rushing yards on 44 carries, averaging 4.41 yards per attempt. UMass had 142 rushing yards. This, the Gamecocks snapped their 14-game streak of being outrushed by the opponent.

-- Defensively, WILL LB Bryson Allen-Williams enjoyed one of his best games as a Gamecock, finishing with nine tackles (DJ Smith led USC with 10 tackles), 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack.

-- T.J. Holloman collected his seventh career interception, most of any active Gamecock player. Only Skai Moore, redshirting in 2016 following neck surgery, has more career picks than Holloman, who was also credited with a forced fumble, pass breakup and quarterback pressure.

-- Chris Lammons’ 19-yard punt return in the second quarter was the longest of the season for the Gamecocks. In fact, the Gamecocks had just 18 punt return yards in the first six games of the season.

-- Because Elliott Fry did not actually make an attempt to kick the ball, the Gamecocks’ botched PAT in the second quarter did not end his school record PAT streak. Fry picked up the loose football and threw it out of bounds, so the play goes into the books simply as a failed 2-point conversion. Fry was 4-for-4 on extra points, extending his streak to 137 straight PATs made. The senior from Frisco, Tex. now has 323 career points, seven behind all-time leader Collie Mackie (330 points). Fry has not attempted a field goal in two games.

-- The Gamecocks forced four turnovers from UMass and added a fourth-down stop, finishing plus-2 in turnover margin (4 takeaways, 2 giveaways). USC now has a plus-3 turnover margin for the season (14-11).

-- Both teams did well as far as converting third downs. The Gamecocks were 6-of-12, while UMass was 8-of-17 (6-12 in second half). In the previous four games, the Gamecocks converted just 11-of-52 third down opportunities (21.2 percent) and no more than three in any single game. “We were much better on third down,” Muschamp said. “That was a positive.”

SEC WEEK 8 SCHEDULE (Sat. Oct. 22)

South Carolina 34, UMass 28

Alabama 33, Texas A&M 14

Middle Tennessee 51, Missouri 45

Auburn 56, Arkansas 3

Tennessee State at Vanderbilt, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU)

Mississippi State at Kentucky, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

Ole Miss at LSU, 9 p.m. (ESPN)

Byes: Florida (5-1), Georgia (4-3), Tennessee (5-2).

Advertisement
Advertisement