Bend but don't break mentality working for Gamecock defense

Dave Doeren stood at the podium after South Carolina’s 35-28 win over his Wolfpack and didn’t have an answer. His offense worked like a well-oiled machine, dinking-and-dunking its way to 504 total yards, 415 through the air.

Yet it was South Carolina, who totaled just 246 yards, celebrating on the field after stopping N.C. State three times from inside its own 10-yard line to seal the seven-point victory.

So, when Doeren was asked is it surprising to lose a game when his team doubled up the opponent in yardage, he struggled for an answer.

“I mean, yeah,” he said, shaking his head. “When you turn the football over and give someone a short field you don’t need a lot of yards. And that happened a couple times.”

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But Saturday’s outcome was nothing new for South Carolina. Will Muschamp’s squad has employed what he calls an “opportunistic” style of defense since he took over as head coach last season.

Three times since he took over the Gamecocks have been outgained offensively but still managed to win the game: Sept. 17 last against East Carolina, Nov. 5 against Missouri and Saturday against N.C. State.

“Bend, don’t break,” Keir Thomas said. “Once you get into the red zone, that’s expensive real estate. You have to protect that.”

In those three games, the Gamecocks have been outgained a combined 1488 to 986 yards but have managed to win all three, outing scoring their opponents 86 to 64.

One of the biggest reasons for that is the turnover margin, and in the games they’ve managed to win while being outgained the Gamecocks are plus-8.

They also forced their opponents to go 22-for-52 (42.3 percent) on third down and 6-for-12 (50 percent) on fourth down. Also, they’ve only allowed a combined 23 second-half points against the Pirates, Tigers and Wolfpack.

“I feel like as the game goes on we get stronger and stronger and we’re going to make those stops,” Chris Lammons said.

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In the three games, the Gamecocks gave up an average of 496 yards per game and almost 10 yards per completion and 3.5 yards per carry. Yet they still managed to win those games.

Despite their opponents racking up yards at a quick clip, when they got inside the red zone the Gamecocks would buckle down and “bow your neck,” as linebacker T.J. Brunson said.

Opponents in those games were a combined 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) inside the Gamecock 20-yard line. Red zone defense is something the coaching staff harps on constantly throughout preparation, practicing different scenarios at least two to three times a week.

It’s a different mentality when the defense’s back is against its own goal line, and one the Gamecocks embrace.

“We got to hold our water,” D.J. Wonnum said. “They’re trying to get into the end zone, we’re backed up and we got to man up and make a play.”

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And make plays the Gamecocks do. They were plus-two in the turnover margin Saturday against N.C. State and the defense would come up big over the course of the fourth quarter to preserve the lead.

T.J. Brunson forced a stop on third down in the middle of the fourth quarter and D.J. Smith forced a turnover on downs by tackling Jaylen Samuels on fourth down short of the first.

Smith showed up again on fourth down swatting away a pass to effectively end the game two plays after Bryson Allen-Williams sacked quarterback Ryan Finley to force the Pack to burn their last timeout.

“We had a couple fourth down stops, so they drove down, we bent a little bit but we didn’t break,” Thomas said. “We had a couple big stops late in the game.”

Muschamp said Tuesday he preaches turnovers and red zone defense to his team every week in practice. Every day the defense has a goal of three forced turnovers, employing a Ballhawk Bucket players can dunk balls into to incentivize turnovers.

It’s appeared to work for the time being, with the Gamecocks doing what Brunson likes and bowing their necks and not allowing N.C. State touchdowns late because of that red zone defense.

The mentality could be tested this, week though, going up against a Missouri team that racked up over 800 yards of offense and 72 points last week.

“We talk about playing great red zone offense and defense. Last week came down in the red zone, we needed to make a stop in the red zone to win,” Muschamp said. “We made a stop in the red zone to force a field goal and we capitalized on two opportunities in the red zone offensively to score 14 points.”