Lifeless Offense Plagues Gamecocks In 16-7 Loss To Clemson

South Carolina's Football team was never able to establish a rhythm on offense, which was their ultimate downfall in a gut-wrenching loss to Clemson.

The South Carolina Gamecocks were looking to cap off a November to remember with a win over their archrivals in the Clemson Tigers. Despite the collective fight from their defense, the offense was unable to get anything going against a staunch Tiger front, leading to a 16-7 loss.

In the first quarter, South Carolina spotted Clemson essentially 10 points, after the offense saw a swing pass on a backward lateral get picked up by Clemson's defense for a touchdown, and then a dropped interception on the Tigers' second offensive possession allowed them to attempt and convert on a 50-yard field goal. These miscues would come back to haunt the Gamecocks for the rest of the night.

Dowell Loggains' offense was able to score a touchdown on their third possession of the game, which at the time tied things up at seven, but after that, there was little to no life for this unit. After recording a first down on the final play of the first quarter, South Carolina wouldn't record another first down until their sixth play of the 3rd quarter, which was under around the seven minute mark in the period. An inability to run the football, plus a ferocious Clemson pass rush kept Spencer Rattler and the rest of the offense locked down

On the other side of the ball, Clayton White's group put up an admirable performance, giving up just nine points, and not allowing anything easy to this Tigers' offense. The only two minor issues that showed up in his game, and coincided with one another at times, was 3rd down defense and allowing the quarterback to scramble beyond the line of scrimmage. Clemson converted on over one-third of their 3rd down attempts, and Cade Klubnik was able to rush for over 50 yards on eleven rushes which, while not killers for South Carolina as a whole, allowed the Tigers to run a bunch of time off the clock.

In the 4th quarter, down nine points with around ten minutes to go in the ballgame, Shane Beamer made a head-scratching decision to punt the football on 4th and 7, despite the offense having some momentum and being on Clemson's 49-yard line, the first time that had been the case since their touchdown drive in the first quarter. While the Gamecocks would eventually get the football back, they wouldn't be able to do anything with it, turning the ball over on downs on their side of the field.

South Carolina finishes the regular season at 5-7.

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