Trends Of The Game: South Carolina Vs. Vanderbilt
South Carolina got its biggest win of the year over the Vanderbilt Commodores in a game where they needed to win to keep bowl eligibility alive. This game was arguably their best and most complete game in all three phases, and still can get better. Here are some tendencies we noticed during today's game:
Offense
It was a tale of two halves for this offensive unit. South Carolina scored 13 points in the first half with 233 total yards of offense. However, because of some costly mistakes, it was a bit closer of a game than one would have liked. In the second half, everything was full go, and this group rarely missed a beat. They scored 34 points in the final 30 minutes, with a touchdown coming from the special teams punt block unit.
Drops continued to get the best of this wide receiver unit and were a big part of the letdown in the first half; conditions weren't favorable with the rain and a weighed-down football, but they still had too many drops in crucial moments. There weren't as many in the second half, leading to a more efficient back half of the game.
The running game is still an area that's struggling as well. Although the final numbers won't show it, before Mario Anderson's 72-yard touchdown run, there was very little threat in the running game.
Defense
Clayton White's defense easily played their best game of the season. This was the first time they held an opponent under 20 points all season, keeping them at six in total.
They did a tremendous job of getting after the quarterback, and while they only had one sack in the first half, they also had five quarterback hurries. The second half was slightly different with a QB change for Vanderbilt, but they did a much better job of disguising the defense and running various stunts and blitzes.
One other encouraging sign was the improved tackling in this game, along with the positioning defenders maintained all over the field. On several different occasions, they were close to making plays on the ball, and how they didn't come away with a single interception is crazy to think about with the eight pass breakups they had.
The Gamecocks will need to carry over this success into next weekend under the lights against the Kentucky Wildcats to keep their bowl hopes alive. Still, this kind of performance gives them much more momentum heading into that crucial battle.
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