Defensive Position Grades: South Carolina at No. 20 Missouri

South Carolina’s football program still hasn’t found a way to put together a complete game on defense, but they showed resilience against Missouri.

Author:
Joseph Griffin
Publish date:
Oct 22, 2023 11:35 PM EDT

It was a tale of two halves yet again for South Carolina's defense against the Missouri Tigers. In the first half, we saw a defense that didn't stay disciplined, wasn't in the correct spot, and had more missed tackles. In the second half, they were nearly perfect, giving the Gamecocks a chance to get back in the ball game and possibly contend for the win. Here are the position grades for Clayton White's unit:

Defensive Line: C

It wasn't pretty at times, especially in rush defense, but they did a better job in the second half in terms of making Missouri earn their keep in the running and passing game. The first half, however, was just a bit too much to overcome.

Linebackers: C-

This was another position group that had two different kinds of halves against Missouri. In the first half, they were out of position on passing downs and over-pursuing against the run. They still have to be more consistent and play a complete game, but they at least showed signs of being able to lead an in-game resurgence for this defense.

Secondary: B-

The secondary was better than what the game may have indicated. Luther Burden got his and was likely going to, regardless of what the defense tried to do to limit him. The only things that this secondary still struggled with were explosive plays and eye discipline. Those two things combined will always look bad, but they held Brady Cook to 58% on the day and gave their team a chance to get back in this game.

Nick Emmanwori in between plays against Florida (22nd Oct., 2023)
Fisher Brewer

Regardless of how good the second half was, the first-half woes were too much to overcome—giving up 24 unanswered points to end the first half against Missouri. It made it that much harder for the offense, who struggled themselves, to mount some kind of run. This second half showed they have the talent to be good, but the consistency is still not there.

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