Stating his Heisman Trophy case with an exclamation point, Alabama running back Mark Ingram gashed the South Carolina defense for a career-high 246 yards Saturday night – leading the second-ranked Crimson Tide to a 20-6 win over the No. 22 Gamecocks.
It was the second straight, nationally-televised showcase game for the 5’10″, 212-pound sophomore from Flint, Michigan – who registered a 172-yard performance a week earlier against Ole Miss.
Aside from Ingram’s bruising effort (roughly half of his yardage came after being hit by Gamecock defenders), it was an ugly, penalty-marred game that Alabama (7-0, 4-0 SEC) wasn’t able to put away until its final drive.
With first-year quarterback Greg McElroy strugging, head coach Nick Saban decided to let Ingram take direct snaps in the “Wildcat” formation – which South Carolina (5-2, 2-2 SEC) has always had trouble defending.
The plan worked to perfection.
After being held without an offensive touchdown all night, the Crimson Tide – or more precisely, its star running back – drove 68 yards in six plays (all of them Ingram rushes) to strike pay dirt for the first time and put the game out of reach.
Alabama’s first touchdown was a 77-yard interception return for a touchdown early in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, South Carolina used four Crimson Tide turnovers and a whopping 10 Alabama penalties (for 110 yards) to stay close, but Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks never could get into a rhythm against the Tide. Quarterback Stephen Garcia finished the night completing 20 of 46 passes for 214 yards – with the one very, very costly interception – but as seems to be the Gamecocks’ problem every year, South Carolina had no running game to speak of against an Alabama defense that was playing without two of its starters.
Of course, Carolina couldn’t do anything on offense for most of the first half, as Alabama held the Gamecocks to 1 yard … that’s right, 1 yard … of offense during the first quarter.
In fact, USC managed to amass just three yards of offense prior to Garcia hitting true freshman Alshon Jeffery on a 53-yard strike near the end of the second quarter.
All in all, it was not a good night for head coach Steve Spurrier.
For example, on the Gamecocks’ rare trips into the Alabama red zone, Spurrier called for the same “fade pass” from Garcia to Jeffery six times … with each play resulting in an incompletion.
Then there was USC’s frustrating lack of urgency during the final minutes of the game.
Taking over with 4:54 left on the clock (and needing two scores), Spurrier inexplicably called two running plays to begin the drive. On top of that, his offense took its sweet time between downs – wasting precious seconds that Carolina didn’t have considering the Gamecocks had already squandered two timeouts earlier in the half.
The loss dropped South Carolina to third in the SEC East and will all but certainly result in the Gamecocks falling out of the Top 25. Spurrier’s record against SEC teams also fell to 17-19.
South Carolina has collapsed toward the end of the season in each of the last two years. Will that happen again this year?
What’s your take on the Gamecocks loss to Alabama?
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By go gamecocks October 18, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Asshole,
It was the number two team in America and they were playing them on the road. What did you expect? A fourteen point loss is respectable.
What is this vicseral hatred for Steve Spurrier too?
Stick to porn and politics which are the only two things you happen to be good at.
Go Cocks!!!!!
By JR6784 October 18, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I was at the game, Mark Ingram was incredible. I don’t know if there is any team in America that could stop the guy. That being said, the offense was atrocious BUT their defense was remarkable. Our defense was good too except for the whole Mark Ingram thing. I personally didn’t think that we played poorly at all, Garcia’s interception aside.
By Not Sayin', Just Sayin' October 18, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Carolina dropped only one spot and is 23 in each poll and Bama is now ranked first. I guess that’s because the pollsters aren’t self-loathing, purported Carolina fans like Sic.
By T4 October 18, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Instead, I suppose we should be elated that Clemson beat the shit out of Wake – a top national contender. Shove it up you a**, Fits.
By ICEMAN October 18, 2009 at 11:34 pm
“The loss dropped South Carolina to third in the SEC East and will all but certainly result in the Gamecocks falling out of the Top 25″
Ouch..wrong again. And unless a collapse occurs, SC will most likely finish 2nd behind Florida in the East.
By Jeffy01 October 19, 2009 at 11:04 am
7-5 here we come….like a bullet.
By utah October 19, 2009 at 11:38 am
Did you notice that Bama does a cheer when they get first downs?