Spencer Rattler addresses being sacked nine times in Week 1 vs. UNC

Spencer Rattler took a toll on Saturday night during South Carolina’s 31-17 loss to North Carolina. The Gamecock quarterback had to pick himself up off the field several times throughout the night. That’s because his offensive line gave up nine sacks to the Tar Heels inside Bank of America Stadium.

Still, Rattler didn’t place all of the blame on his unit up front. Following their season-opening loss, he admitted that some of those sacks could have been on him. In the end, he just feels as though there are clear things to clean up and that the offense just needs to build off of the fight that they did show at times during the matchup.

“A few of those would be on me after I go look on film. But, you know, we’ll clean some stuff up up front and just figure that out,” Rattler said. “It’s still a work in progress.”

“I mean we still had a lot of explosive plays. But, you know, we could have had more. I’m sure you all saw it. They were bringing a lot of blitzes,” continued Rattler. “We’ve got stuff to clean up, for sure. But I’m proud of the way we fought. We showed improvement in some areas. But, obviously, we’re not there yet. We’ve got to get better but I’m proud of the way we fought.”

Rattler was under duress all night long against the Tar Heels. He did manage to post a few better passing numbers than Drake Maye on the opposite side. In total, he finished with six more completions, 84 more passing yards, and two fewer interceptions with none on the night.

However, he also didn’t throw a touchdown as he was busy either scrambling for his life or getting up after North Carolina brought him down.

Still, in a spot where he could have expressed some very legitimate frustration, Rattler built his offensive line up even after that performance. He chose to give credit to their opponent’s game plan and said that their focus from here just only needs to be on addressing those issues moving forward.

“You can get upset but, you know, those guys are in a tough position. They work their butts off and they’re out there trying. Credit to North Carolina. They had a good game plan, had a lot of linebacker run-throughs when picking our center. That was giving us some fits. So we’re just going to have to put it on our chalkboard and go back to work