Steve Spurrier came into the game tonight against NC State sporting a 18-1 record in season openers. That number is now 19-1. In a hard fought battle that was literally decided by inches, the Gamecocks outlasted the Wolfpack 7-3. Many in Raleigh expected to see "The Russell Wilson Show" that was such a big hit at the end of last season, but the USC defense was just too stingy on Thursday. Returning six starters from the nations 13th ranked defense, South Carolina limited the Pack to a measly 133 yards, their lowest output since 2004 against Florida State, when they tallied only 123.The Wolfpack faithful filed in early and kept the volume up in anticipation for the match-up with their out of state foe, but it only took one play from scrimmage to take the air out of the 57,000 in attendance. Toney Baker, who missed 2 years recovering from multiple knee surgeries, coughed up the football on the NC State 14, and four plays later, Brian Maddox made the score 7-0 on a one yard TD run. That was all the Gamecocks would get, but it would be more than enough.
"(The fumble) is not what I had in mind for the first play. The main thing was being able to bounce back and I feel that I did that." said Baker
NC State did all they could to get their offense rolling in the second half, but simply could not find seems or catch breaks. Russell Wilson was a very pedestrian 12-23 for only 74 yards, and while his streak of 272 straight passes without an interception is now 3rd in NCAA history, he was not able to get into a real rhythm with the constant penetration from the USC defensive line.
"We lacked the ability to sustain on offense. We couldn't get anything going, and with our pass protection, we had Russell Wilson running around too much. He couldn't get his feet set. We must be better up front." Said a frustrated Tom O'Brien after the game.
Late in the 3rd quarter, with the score still 7-0, USC, the Gamecocks missed a 27 yard field goal. After that, the momentum began to swing NC State's way for the first time all night. After a stalled drive by the Pack, Michael Lemon picked off Stephen Garcia at midfield and it seemed as if the Wolfpack was on the verge of finally breaking through. With the crowd growing louder and feeling the swing, Wilson hit Owen Spencer with 15 yard pass that put the Pack in field goal range, but a field goal was all they could muster, as Josh Czajkowski knocked down a career-long 43 yarder.
NC State had it's chances, most of which were created by Russell Wilson being flushed out of the pocket and forcing the issue, but they never were able to connect on the big play. With 4 minutes left in the game, Wilson rolled right and threw a pin point lob over two South Carolina defenders in the back of the endzone. The pass slipped through the arms of Jay Smith, and with it slipped the hopes of a Wolfpack victory. That was the type of night it was for the Pack, but failure to make the big play may have had more to do with the Gamecocks not allowing the big play. Credit certainly needs to be given to the South Carolina defense who was ruthless and persistent, and never allowed Russell Wilson to get in a groove.
"They're pretty good. They have a lot of talent. You have to give them credit....It was a good game. Two great teams going at it the whole game, but we just came out on the short hand." Wilson said.
While the South Carolina defense was the story of this ballgame, the Wolfpack defense was almost equally impressive, allowing only 256 yards on the night. Quite an accomplishment for a defensive unit who finished dead last in the ACC last season. While a loss in the season opener surely stings, the Wolfpack defense was upbeat about their performance.
"I thought we played pretty well. We had some mistakes that we have to iron out for the next game...(but) we held them to 7 points. The back guys are even younger than the linebackers. They stepped up, but it was unfortunate how the game turned out." said sophomore linebacker Audie Cole
Now 0-1, the Pack will prepare for Murray State on Saturday, Sept. 12th at noon. Although the let down of losing a nationally televised game in the season opener surely does not sit well with the coaches, players or fans, this is a young team that will use the experience to learn and to improve.
"This is a team that understands that maybe we let one slip away, but they know to come back and work on some thing this week and make corrections." O'Brien told the media.
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21 Responses to "Gamecocks Outlast Wolfpack In Defensive Showdown 7-3"Defense played really well. Russell found his zone a little too late. But the question is when are our receivers going to actually step up?
obrien should have kicked a fg from the 34!
competitive game but not what i expected.
Either Russell's knee is still hurt or he is afraid to re-injure it because he just looked so much slower than last year.
Hope you don't mind WPH, but I think I'm going to run over and see what the excuse machines are pumping out to bail out the coaching staff on this effort.
I'll help with the Recap... The Offense was just plain bad. Bright spots for the future Rashard Smith and James Washington.
After returning from Carter Finley, I am still very upset so I will keep my comments short due to my rage but....
Worst play calling in the TOB era.
Run up the middle every time wont win a game. Russell Wilson was as tentative as Ive ever seen.
Great Def. W/O Baker fumbling on the first play we win this game.
Quick report back from the dark side...
1) All the mistakes and penalties were actually just "the ghost of Chuck Amato". Of course, those comments were coming from the same people who say that it's A-L-L Sidney Lowe fault when the BB players do similar.
2) I actually one or two people who said that the FB coaching staff was at fault tonight, and the people who posted those thoughts didn't even get banned from the site.
3) The ark builder was all over Garcia the SC QB, probably because Amato recruited him, but he only had one misque, and his team did win the game afterall. He was also trashing Ruiz, the Wolfpack punter, right before he boomed that 52 yarder from deep in our own territory.
Oh well, just like the game tonight, some things never change.
No doubt they'll get better, but then again, they have a much longer way to go then I think most any of us would have ever thought before tonight.
'...we don't care what they come in as, but they'd better leave as five-star guys...' - TOB
As tonight's announcers DULY noted, SC had some straight athletes and they dominated our face at our house. Everybody used to hate on Amato's coaching ability, but at least he found some monsters that could make plays. Seems like our 'superior' coaching of today didn't make a damn bit of difference on the field. Offense was very poor and defense blew A LOT of assignments, so no need to praise them.
All of that practice and prep led to this?
It was a tough game. I'm still upset. Alot of wasted opportunities. Wilson seemed hesitant at times to run with the football when flushed out of the pocket. I couldn't tell if he was getting flushed out because the WR's werent running good routes, or if the OL was just not good, or if it was Wilson himself. Being at the game it was hard to see why thus asking what ya'll think. Or maybe USC's defense is just crazy good..I'm not sure.
The defense was certainly a big positive. Honestly, the secondary was the biggest question in my mind and I felt they played well.
Although people will surely complain about the play calling, it wasn't that much different than we saw last year, the offense just didn't make plays (Coach O'Brien put a lot of the blame on the offensive line.) Now, maybe there were a few too many draws and not enough misdirection but I'm certainly no football coach. Also, the time of possession number certainly was skewed towards South Carolina pretty heavily.
In the press conference (which we'll release on video tomorrow) Coach O'Brien talked a lot about the fact that the offensive line simply wasn't good.
IMO, the line faltered a lot, but Russell was very tentative in the first 2 and 1/2 quarters. All this off-season talk of his injuries and how he needs to slide more and stay in the pocket more may have gotten in his head a bit.
FWIW, USC was a top 15 defense in the nation last year and they returned most of their key pieces. You had to have expect a low scoring game.
A bunch of folks here are way goofed up on something. Defenses are usually ahead of Offenses at this stage of the season. Fact. Their Defense was good- all the way around- with some very fast secondary. The strength of the D looked like the two DE's and Norwood, a LB that plays more like a DE.
When Baker fumbled, we all said well that sucks. But we came out ready to move the ball next drive. It was hard getting holes open but Wilson had time and receivers got open on the very next drive. He threw one over one receiver for what would have been a 13 yard p/u. He tossed another one to the wrong side of Grahm when he was wide open down town - oh well, get them next time right - nope.
Once Jake Vermiglio went down we were screwed against this team. He protects Russells blindside and when you're talking DE's and LB's from the USC defense you really get the idea of blind side pass protection. Williams moved over to where he has played in the past- but not since last season. Then first timers like Wallace (illegal receiver downfield anyone?) and former C moved to RG and now at LG Andy Barbee filled in. The OL was effective stuck in nuetral as soon as LT Vermiglio got hurt.
But we hung and there and competed all the way to the end. I'm proud off these guys and especially players like Smith, Greoge, Wilson in the secondary; Mageo, Sweezy, Lemon, Maddux and Audie Cole for the front 7. We played a lot more players then USC did on defense and many of them it was their frist go around or first time playing a bunch of snaps. The offense - well they fought to the bitter end and there is no doubt that Russell needs to look the George Bryan more often. James Washington is a blur once he gets the hand off.
We all knew that SC had a very good defense coming into the game, and the game would be decided when our offense was on the field. We lost that battle on our first drive. I feel for Baker. He has to live with that fumble.
We can play the 'what if' game all we want, but it'll do no good. Our defense played well against a relatively bad SEC offense. Our offense sputtered against a very good SECOND defense. SURPRISE!
TOB admitted that Russell didn't go through his progressions last season and cut bait early after one or two reads. He is now being told not to run so early and is now trying to check down. Of course it is a learning curve, and of course he is going to get caught taking too much time looking for his recievers. He looked slower because he is not playing on instinct anymore.
Cole played pretty well, save for a few missed tackles. Maddox and Manning played well. Our DB's didn't give up a lot of yards. The O-line was weak, at best. Washington played well. I'd like to know why he played so much (TOB always has a reason for these things).
SC played some dirty ball. They will take what they are given, much like FSU or us under Amato. They were given a lot.
Anyone know how in the world that ref in the middle made it through the game. He is so big he could hardly walk!
We have things to improve upon, for sure. The saving grace is that this game has no influence on our conference record. TOB will right the ship.
Washington came in the game b/c Eugene was hurt. Not sure the extent of the injury.
My take on the game.
Our offense needs to play a few games to get into sync. They were rushing and just need to slow it down.
Russell's size was a disadvantage last night. He missed some open down-the-middle opportunities a couple of times, it appeared to me it was because he not see over the line.
Not enough opportunities to send it long to Spencer. The game situations seemed to take that away.
SC defense is really good. Some of those players are really fast for being so big. I was impressed. Might be the best defense we'll see all year.
Although frustrating, I am glad we saw a good team early. We almost toughed it out. This game will make us better and certainly ready for the best the ACC can throw at us.
There were mistakes by both teams last night. Neither was very impressive on offense.
However, I really think that this game came down to one thing... and someboday said this last week, I don't remember who, but it was LINE PLAY! Our D-Line, for as much praise as they got this offseason, got beat up by a sub-par O-Line of South Carolina. They did recover in the second half to an extent, but they need to pick it up for the later conference games this year.
Also, our O-Line, as WPH pointed out was not the same after Vermiglio went down. I had kind of given the O-Line a pass for thinking they were going to be good this year just because they were coached by TOB and Horton. However, we still have a lot of inexperience. This will take time. I don't see our O-Line being even decent until mid-way through this season.
Because of this point, I think it is imperative to keep Russel Wilson healthy at least until then. Even if that means keeping him in the pocket more and having him slide and or check down more often. I know, it looks lame, slow, lackluster, etc. but it will keep us in a lot of games. You have to step back and say, "that was a slow offensive game, but we were in it the whole time." That is what matters.
I believe that our next 2 games will give us plenty of time to work out a good portion of our problems.
I do want to give props to our LBs and young Secondary guys. They played and worked hard last night. I especially liked the hit in the backfield that Audie Cole laid on Maddox! BOOM!
Good News - A Wolfpack DB did not sucker punch one of the Gamecocks after the game!
Tip O'the game - Memo to receivers: DO NOT eat the buttered popcorn in between offensive series!
Pack, put this miserable night behind you and start getting ready for next week's really big game against the perennial national powerhouse, the Murray State Racers!
Another $#@* performance on national tv. Thanks for laying another giant egg! And to the scalpers who were charging $125 a ticket, you won't have that opportunity again! Half price tickets it is!
are you guys gonna do any stories on the recruits at the game?
I thought the defense was pretty good. No fumble by Baker and we might have won this game, but you cant say its all baker's fault with the fumble. Offensive line was pitiful USC is fast but not that fast. The offensive line as parts of the ball game looked like they weren't trying what so ever.
We looked pitiful all around we play like this all year and we go 2-10 beating gardner webb and Murray State.
Tim, let's not jump out of the window just yet. I understand your disappointment, but we are going to get better through the year. TOB teams always do. We get to fine tune our game over the next several games, then our ACC slate marks the start of the season that matters. We lost a shot at the National Championship on Thursday night. But, an ACC Championship and a BCS Bowl is still on the plate. Don't give up on this team. They didn't play as bad as you think.
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