Dowell Loggains assesses South Carolina's offensive struggles and what it's going to take to fix them

Where do you even begin?

It wasn’t just one thing that caused South Carolina’s offense to do next to nothing in last Saturday’s 27-3 loss to Ole Miss. It was a mixture of everything not being good enough. And now, the offense is under heavy fire for not being able to do more after having two weeks to prepare for this last game.

So, who or what is to blame for all of the struggles?

“If y’all want to blame anyone, you always start with me,” offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said. “That’s my job is to help these guys be successful and we didn’t do that enough in this last game.”

After seemingly making progress in each of the first four games offensively, the Gamecocks took a major step backwards against Ole Miss. The offense was able to eclipse over 300 total yards and make some nice plays here and there. But that’s all it was. Three points is three points.

“We didn’t execute the way we needed to execute. We didn’t coach the way we needed to coach,” Loggains said.

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Of all the offensive issues, moving the football didn’t seem to be one of them — at least to some extent. South Carolina drove into Ole Miss territory six different times, yet only came away with one minuscule field goal.

The reason for this being the offense couldn’t produce in the red zone. As a unit, the Gamecocks went 1-for-3 in red zone tries and had chances to do more but couldn’t so. But to Loggains’ point, the Rebels were okay with giving up yardage and instead seeing if South Carolina could put together sustainable drives to reach the end zone, which worked out in the defense’s favor.

“It was definitely a game where we were going to try to shrink the game a little bit and go for it on some fourth downs,” Loggains said. “So, you start to look at what didn’t work. I think we were 1-of-5 on third-down runs — we were trying to put it more in fourth and manageable and go for it.”

When it came down to it, the offense wasn’t consistent enough to win the game. LaNorris Sellers missed on some of his throws. The pass protection was far from good with six sacks allowed. The wide receivers struggled to create separation at times. Third and fourth downs continued to be a thorn in halting any momentum. It was an all-around collective effort.

“We weren’t explosive enough in the passing game. I think we had two explosive passes. It’s a hard formula to win no matter how efficient you are in the run game. And we had two turnovers,” Loggains said.

“So, when you’re not explosive in the passing game, I mean, you turn the ball over and you don’t finish drives, I think we had five drives of over eight plays or more. It wasn’t a move the ball thing, it was a finish a drive thing. It was a finish and execution.”

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So, however you look at it, there are clear problems with the offense. And it may not get any easier with the daunting task of playing an Alabama team coming off a loss, let alone in Tuscaloosa.

But like resolving all problems, it starts by finding the source of where the issues began. For Loggains, it’s sacks, turnovers and penalties — three things they will attack this week.

“We have to attack every day at practice the things that get you beat first,” he said. “And that’s where we’re going to show improvement. That’s where you have to create consistency is those things. Then you know what? If that happens, the eight-play drive, the 10-play drive ends in points versus going 10 plays, getting across the 50, and you come out with no points seven times. That’s unacceptable.”

It’s easier said than done, though. Figuring out the problems are just one phase of the equation. The next step is going about fixing it. And that’s what this week’s practices have been all about to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

“The consistency that you’re trying to build, the only way to do it is through practice and making sure we’re all on the same page with the same message of how we’re going to win football games,” Loggains said. “… We lost a home game where we didn’t play well enough. The tape tells us what we need to work on. But it’s the messaging of we have to clean up the things that lose games.”

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