South Carolina Makes Big Plays When Needed vs. Mississippi State

The South Carolina Football program took the field against the Mississippi State Bulldogs tonight in their second conference game.

South Carolina's football team got a much-needed victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday night, winning by a final score of 37-30. Coming into this game, we felt it was likely that Mississippi State would do certain things on both sides of the ball that would allow the Gamecocks to attack them a certain way. Did the game play out that way based on South Carolina's tendencies?

Offense

Spencer Rattler and this offense did a great job of sustaining drives in this game, having a drive go for 16 plays, the longest in the Shane Beamer Era, another 13-play drive, and a 10-play drive, collectively leading to 17 points. This was a bright spot compared to last week, allowing their defense to rest and remain aggressive throughout the game.

Another huge bright spot for this team is how well the offensive line blocked in this game, particularly in the rushing game. They had 125 yards in the first half, finishing with 144 yards behind Mario Anderson Jr., who led the way with 88 yards on 26 carries and a touchdown.

Spencer did a great job of taking what the defense gave him and making the right reads. He went into half 13 of 13 and 162 yards and two touchdowns and finished with 288 yards and three touchdowns.

Defense

The secondary struggled in this game, to say the least, at least in the first half. They had a hard time with biting on the play action on the defensive side of the ball. The Gamecocks gave up three big plays, one going for 65 yards to the house and another 60-yarder to Lideatrick Griffin, who had 205 yards in the first half alone. Allowing nearly 500 yards through the air is something that is going to need to be fixed quickly before next week's matchup against Tennessee.

The front seven, however, played a much better ball game as well, having nine tackles for loss and holding this Bulldog's team, who averaged 179 yards per game on the season, to 32 yards on the ground. The front was also active in the passing game, racking up four sacks and five pass deflections.

While the game wasn't pretty at times, both sides of the ball came up with big plays when it mattered the most. The Gamecocks have some work to do this week, especially fixing some issues in the secondary, but it's a great way to bounce back and win a hard-fought SEC game.

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