Going into the week, the plan from South Carolina’s side of things was for Saturday’s game to be the Zeb Noland show with Luke Doty out the rest of the way.
With 15 yards of offense and no points through the first three quarters, it didn’t necessarily work out that way.
Noland, who took a beating Saturday and was dealing with what Shane Beamer called a “bloody everything” was relieved in the fourth quarter by Jason Brown who got his first extended action since week one and ultimately led South Carolina in passing.
“He’s a gamer. Whether it be back in the spring game—which is a completely different level—he came in and made some throws in the spring game. The moment wasn’t too big for him. He sat in the pocket, made some throws and certainly some throws he would like to have back that maybe were a little off,” Shane Beamer said.
“For his first game action I thought he came in and did a great job. I thought he did a nice job of sustaining plays and creating when we gave up some pressure and be able to get out of the pocket and make some throws.”
Brown, according to PFF, was the Gamecocks’ second-highest graded player regardless of snap count with an overall grade of 80.1 in 27 snaps.
Playing in his first real SEC action, Brown played the entire fourth quarter of a blowout loss to the Aggies completing eight of his 14 pass attempts for 84 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Aided by two penalties on a fourth down conversion, he’d lead a 7-play, 75-yard touchdown drive followed by two drives ending in interceptions and a nine-play, 59-yard touchdown drive on South Carolina’s final offensive possession.
“He went out there, did his job and did it well,” Zeb Noland said. “Jason did a great job. He moved around in the pocket well, great communication on the field. What more could you ask for to go down there and get 14 points at the end of the game in the fourth quarter?”
According to PFF, Brown ended with an adjusted completion percentage of 72.7 and an average depth of target of 11.4, both up from Noland, who was running for his life Saturday night (11 pressures on 20 dropbacks).
Brown, who was pressured four times on 13 dropbacks, went 2-for-4 for 20 yards and a touchdown while under pressure for an NFL passer rating of 104.2. When kept clean, Brown averaged 7.9 yards per attempt with an interception.
All but one of his pass plays were straight dropbacks, going 6-for-11 for 69 yards, a touchdown and an interception. But there was still a bevy miscommunication issues with Brown in the game—a few errant snaps and still two interceptions—needing to be cleaned up before the next game in two weeks.
“We had another dumb snap. It’s one of those things where we continue to beat ourselves,” Noland said. “That’s all we continue to do. As a leader on this team and as leaders we have to continue to fix those things and quit beating ourselves.”
The quarterback position now is back in upheaval, and Beamer is likely to be asked Sunday night on his teleconference the plan moving forward at the position entering the bye week.
Noland struggled Saturday playing behind an offensive line allowing too much pressure and Brown’s outing came with the game clearly out of hand late with just 15 yards through three quarters.
It can be hard to truly evaluate a player’s performance in garbage time situations, but Beamer still thinks Brown did well despite Texas A&M not having all of their first-team guys out there then.
“One drive they had some backups in but that second drive they had their dudes in there if I’m not mistaken. Certainly they had some down-the-line guys in there but I saw some top guys in the second half as well,” he said.
“Let’s not chalk it up to they had the backups in there and we went up and down the field on them. They had some good players we were blocking and throwing and catching against. I thought Jason did well."
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