Downright Offensive
The best defense in the Southeastern Conference – the third-best in the nation – went down to Gainesville on Saturday and got flat out abused.
Initially, it appeared that South Carolina’s “D” was going to be as good as advertised. The Gamecocks caused a fumble and forced a punt on the mighty Florida Gators’ first two possessions, just what you have to do if you want to hang around against the best football team in the country.
But as it has done all year, USC head coach Steve Spurrier’s offense dropped the ball – or in this case threw it to the wrong team.
Chris Smelley tossed two interceptions on back-to-back possessions (one of which was returned for a touchdown) and then a botched trick play on special teams led to another score.
When the bleeding finally stopped, 21 Gator points had been put on the board within two minutes … precisely the sort of self-inflicted wounds you cannot commit against a team as talented as Florida (9-1, 7-1 SEC).
Trailing 28-3 at halftime, though, South Carolina’s defense at that point had still only given up one big play to the explosive Florida offense – but the screws were about to fall off.
On the first play of the second half, Florida wide receiver Percy Harvin went eighty yards for a touchdown, and from that point on the Gamecock defenders pretty much looked like they didn’t care.
And why should they?
With the Gamecocks only gaining 173 yards the whole game, it wasn’t like the outcome of this one was in question.
After a season of carrying the load and bailing out the pathetic preparation, play-calling and performance of the “Cock-n-Misfire” offense, the South Carolina defense finally broke.
Which leads us to a point we’ve been making all season – this is a one-sided football team, people.
Hell, the Gamecock defense and special teams have scored almost as many points this year as USC’s offense has, and in each of the team’s previous three losses (Vanderbilt, Georgia and LSU) the defense clearly played well enough to win while the offense sputtered and turned the ball over.
Seriously, if Spurrier was doing the job he was hired to do the Gamecocks would be undefeated right now … but he’s not.
We hate to be so blunt, but if this was any other team every single one of its offensive coaches would be looking for a new job next season.
Comments
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' on November 18th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
The defense did OK considering it played nonstop for almost sixty minutes. Smelley needs to be yanked and John Hunt needs to be expelled from the state.
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