Before the season started, Mike Bobo said anything over eight yards per pass offensively and your unit is doing something right.

Conversely, Bobo’s logic dictates if a defense is giving up over eight yards per pass attempt it means things aren’t going so well for that particular unit.

Through two games, the Gamecocks have allowed opponents almost nine yards per pass attempt with their early-season struggles coming to a head in a loss to Florida.

“I wouldn’t really there were big issues, but we didn’t do a good enough job covering. That’s all it came down to: not winning our one-on-one matchups,” Jaycee Horn said. It wasn’t really the play calling or miscommunications. It was just not winning our one on ones.”

The Gamecocks allowed 268 yards through the air Saturday in a 14-point loss to the Gators with quarterback Kyle Trask completing 72.4 percent of his passes and throwing for four touchdowns.

The defense did force two turnovers—Tonka Hemingway forcing a fumble off Trask and Israel Mukuamu picking him off—that led to two touchdowns but other than that Trask was able to do a lot of what he wanted, especially early.

Trask completed 14 of his first 17 passes for 175 yards (10.3 yards per attempt) in the first half.

“It was just breakdowns on our part. I feel like we didn’t come out good in the first half but picked it up in the second half. In the SEC you can’t start slow,” Israel Mukuamu said. “You have to come out ready to go.”

Florida rattled off eight explosive plays for the day, including a 57-yard touchdown pass to Kadarius Toney.

It was a little different in the second half with Trask going 7-for-12 for 93 yards (7.7 yards per attempt) with two touchdowns and a pick; Muschamp said they didn’t make too many second half adjustments and it was more about players playing better.

“We just executed a little bit better in those situations,” Muschamp said. “As far as our game plan, it was to shorten the game and keep them off the field. We did a lot of those things well. We just didn’t do enough to win the game.”

The larger issue now is what was supposed to be a strength of this defense, the secondary, is struggling to start the year.

Through two games the Gamecocks are allowing quarterbacks to average 8.7 yards per play, 12.9 yards per completion and have allowed five touchdowns to just one interception.

“We have to make more momentum-changing plays for our football team in gaining possession, gaining field position and getting our offense on the field,” Will Muschamp said. “We’re not making those plays right now. We’re not making some of the routine plays we need to make on a seam ball. We’re not doing enough things right.”