There were two moments late Saturday where things got hairy for South Carolina.
Locked in a tie game, ECU’s C.J. Johnson caught a pass in the flat only to be laid out a milliseconds later by Cam Smith along the sideline and, the very next play on third down, it was Jaylan Foster and David Spaulding ganging up on Tyler Snead in the open field for a tackle.
The moments in a vacuum are massive—forcing an ECU punt and setting up the Gamecocks’ eventual game winning drive—but speak to a larger picture Saturday of the defense coming up time and time again in a 20-17 win.
“We take pride in folks when they strike on that film they’re going to see a dominant defense, a ferocious defense and we’re going to fly around to the ball. We’re going to get the ball: get ball, see ball and make plays,” JJ Enagbare said. “Today was a testament to that.”
Also see: Instant analysis from Saturday's win
With South Carolina’s offense stalling the majority of the first three quarters, it was the Gamecock defense coming up down in and down out after a shaky start.
The defense allowed a touchdown on a 75-yard jet sweep pass but was downright stifling the rest of ECU’s 62 plays.
After the touchdown on the first play the Gamecocks held ECU to just 193 yards of total offense, 3.1 yards per play and just 3.2 yards per pass attempt.
ECU starter Holton Ahlers completed just 11 of his 24 attempts for 77 yards as the Gamecocks dominated up front and sacked him a whopping five times.
“I mean they just keep coming at you, man, all 11. There’s a lot of things we have to clean up and get better at but I love the fact they continue to get better and better and better as the game went,” Shane Beamer said. “It wasn’t like they looked tired in the fourth quarter. They looked fast, fresh and as physical as ever in the fourth quarter.”
The story of the season through two games has been the defense sparking this team and turning momentum, and it was no different Saturday.
With the Gamecocks looking listless near the end of the first half, Damani Staley corralled a tipped ball and motored all of his 6-foot-1, 240 pound frame into the end zone for the Gamecocks’ second pick six in as many games and channeling some of that running back mentality his father had decades ago.
Also see: Full recap from Shane Beamer's postgame presser
“I don’t know how the rest of the season goes but that may be the play of the year when we look back in November. We were struggling for anything at that point,” Beamer said. “That momentum we felt coming into halftime because of that play was huge.”
Then, late in the second half, it was Sherrod Greene making a tackle for loss on second down followed by a Brad Johnson sack on third down, one of his team-best nine tackles, to help stall an ECU drive in the red zone, ending in a field goal.
South Carolina ended allowing just 17 points, the fewest against a FBS team since allowing 17 against Missouri last season; the last time they allowed a FBS team to score fewer than 17 was week three last season against Vanderbilt.
The defense has obviously been the strength this season, pitching a shutout in the opener before dominating Saturday, but there’s still room to grow according to Enagbare.
“It’s definitely nice. It’s the bright spot of the season but it’s definitely not settling for this moment,” he said. “We definitely know we have more in the tank and can show more. We can dominate a little more.”
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