The Difference Between Bama and South Carolina

by Chris Paschal

The final score of last Saturday’s Alabama-South Carolina game was a bit misleading. These headlines of “Alabama cruised to an easy victory over South Carolina” are a bit ridiculous. Ask Alabama fans. South Carolina gave Alabama a good game. One of my Alabama friends texted me “can’t believe y’all lost to North Carolina” after the game. Me neither, my man…

So what is the difference between Alabama and South Carolina. Why was the score 47-23 after a game where most people felt like South Carolina played well and gave the Crimson Tide a run for their money? Let’s break this down.

3. Alabama Was Faster Where It Mattered

Alabama was faster in the one position battle that really dictated this game. Alabama’s wide receivers were faster than South Carolina’s defensive backs. The most telling play was the Henry Ruggs touchdown late in the first quarter. Ruggs, the fastest player on Alabama’s offense, took a slant reception for a 70 yard touchdown. Watch the tape. South Carolina cornerback, Israel Mukuama, couldn’t even stay in the same frame. He got beat that bad. Later in the game, Jaycee Horn was burned on a slant pattern. South Carolina wasn’t burned deep. That’s what was so remarkable. That’s how much faster Alabama was. They didn’t run by South Carolina defensive backs with double moves or blown coverages. They literally caught the football with defenders all around and just took off.

That being said, South Carolina matched Alabama equally at every other position battle. Freshman Ryan Hilinski had the performance of the decade at quarterback against a Nick Saban defense. The defensive line held their own in rush defense. The offensive line played beautifully, something that I appreciated after I was blasted for defending them after the North Carolina game. (I’m sure they put there best performance forward in an attempt to defend my reputation.) In fact, South Carolina out-rushed Alabama in this football game.

South Carolina matched Alabama at every position group except one. The Tide wide receivers crushed the Carolina defensive backs. That’s why this game felt closer than it looked. When you move the ball effectively against another team, and when you stop the other team’s rushing attack, you would assume that the score would be close. That’s why this game felt closer than it actually was.

2. The Red Zone

South Carolina didn’t score touchdowns in the red zone. It’s the same problem that happened against Clemson last year. Clemson fans loved to point towards the scoreboard last season, and beat their chest, and say stuff like “that game wasn’t even close.” Well, scoreboards don’t always tell the whole story. I want to paint this picture for you. It’s the waning seconds of the first half. South Carolina is a single yard from a touchdown. They punch it in for a touchdown. The second half opens with South Carolina driving the ball all the way down the field. They are four yards away from a touchdown. They punch it in again. A hypothetical of a team scoring touchdowns when they were within five yards of the end zone both times does not seem ridiculous. In fact, it seems likely.

That’s what hurts about those two red zone trips. If South Carolina scores both of those drives instead of spazzing the first time and kicking a field goal the second time, South Carolina and Alabama are tied. TIED. In the second half. Does Alabama still win? Most likely. But that’s the thing about football. Especially college football. You don’t know. How does Alabama react tied at 24 in the second half? More importantly, how does South Carolina react tied with Alabama at 24 in the second half? Both of those drives made this game feel tight. Both of those drives made this game feel like South Carolina had a fighting chance. But because they didn’t result in points, the scoreboard reflected a harsher reality.

1. The Ball Didn’t Bounce South Carolina’s Way

Muschamp talks about this all the time, and he is right — games are decided by a handful of plays. Four or five plays every game decide the outcome. South Carolina lost on those plays. Here are the five plays that decided this game (in chronological order):

1. The Fake Field Goal: Watching that play still hurts me. It was perfectly executed. It would have been a haymaker early in that game. That drive was following two sacks by South Carolina’s defense on the previous drive. To follow those sacks up with a fake field goal touchdown would have been huge. In the words of my buddy, Michael Parks, if that play isn’t called back, it goes down as one of the greatest plays in Gamecock history.

2. Najee Harris’s Unbelievable Touchdown Reception: This run was unreal. As Crimson Tide radio announcer, Eli Gold, stated, this was the play of the year thus far. Two huge points about this play. One, it came on fourth down. A stop there and momentum swings back South Carolina’s way. Second, an egregious offensive pass interference was missed by the officials. If that flag is thrown, Alabama punts the ball away. But here is an important point. When the ball bounces your way, you have to take advantage of it. Alabama takes advantage of these types of moments because they are en elite program.

3. Rico Dowdle Trips, Snap is Muffed. That back-to-back play sequence was the most important sequence of the game. For some reason, Rico has trouble keeping his feet when he gets excited. It’s something I have noticed throughout his career. It’s not a knock on him, just something I have observed. Not a single Crimson Tide defender touched Rico as he was heading towards the end zone at the end of the first quarter. I know there is a lot of debate on whether his knee touched before the ball crossed the goal line and why it wasn’t reviewed, but to be honest, it shouldn’t have come down to that. Rico should have run in standing up. But he didn’t and on the next play, inches from the goal line, Hilinski acted like a freshman at the worst time and fumbled the snap. That drive ended with no points.

4. Bryan Edwards is Stuffed on 2nd and Goal. That’s the play that stymied the second trip in the red zone to not result in a touchdown. That jet sweep to Edwards had been so successful throughout the first half. I don’t fault the play call. Alabama made the play they needed to make. South Carolina didn’t.

5. Hilinski Stripped in 3rd Quarter. This was basically the dagger in the game. Down 31-13, Hilinski is sacked and stripped of the ball. Alabama recovered and drove down the field and kicked a field goal to make it a 21 point game. South Carolina wasn’t coming back down 21.

So there it is. In my opinion, that’s why the scoreboard and the game didn’t feel to be in sync. The good news is that this shows South Carolina is getting closer to making the next step as a program. Losing 56-13 and being out-gained by hundreds of yards would have been detrimental. Fighting for most of the game and keeping it competitive against Alabama shows that South Carolina is starting to close the gap between the Alabama’s, and the Georgia’s, and the Clemson’s.

Future for the Gamecocks

The next two weeks are crucial for South Carolina. Despite the good things that came from the Alabama game, it still was tallied as a loss. The rest of the schedule doesn’t care that it was a better loss than most expected. Missouri and Kentucky are winnable but tough games. South Carolina wins both of those games and they head into the bye week a team that looks nothing like the team that lost to North Carolina. But if South Carolina loses both or even one, October looks daunting. 1-5 or even 2-4 with Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, App State, A&M, and Clemson guarantees a losing season. 3-2 gives this team confidence and life.

It’s like that old saying about The Masters — there are two tournaments at The Masters… the first 63 holes and then the back nine on Sunday. This is kind of like the back nine on Sunday… this is a season within a season. Get to the bye week 3-2 and then go from there.