Key penalties hurt South Carolina offense from generating momentum
It was a tale of two quarters in the first half for South Carolina. The Gamecocks dominated the first quarter but the second quarter was a different story.
And a large part of that had to do with some key penalties against South Carolina.
On the Gamecocks’ first offensive play of the second quarter, Spencer Rattler faced pressure from the Texas A&M defense and threw the ball away. But he was flagged for intentional grounding, which would be called against him two more times in the second quarter.
“They’re tough to judge. I mean, the first one, I kind of think it was a bad call, honestly. I had Xavier (Legette) over there,” Rattler said. “The next two, was trying not to take a sack, you know what I mean? Trying to get the ball out. We had all the routes headed to the middle on one and then all to the left on one. Got pressure off both sides that naturally took me to the other side and nobody was over there.”
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It ended up hurting South Carolina badly as the penalties came on three separate drives in the quarter. When Texas A&M got the ball back, it went down and scored three times.
Those touchdowns would be a defining moment in the game as the Aggies pulled away to a 30-17 win on Saturday.
After the game, head coach Shane Beamer called those penalties “critical” and a turning point.
“When you have three intentional groundings in a half, it’s debilitating because you lose the down and you lose yardage. You’re backed up. And those aren’t all on Spencer. Obviously, he’s having to throw it away because the protection breaks down,” Beamer said.
When Rattler spoke about why he kept throwing the ball away, he said offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains told him to avoid taking a sack. He ended up getting sacked four times.
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“Dowell said, ‘Hey, good job. Keep throwing it away. Don’t take a sack or risk a fumble.’ But it definitely hurt,” Rattler said.
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It was something the Gamecocks could never truly recover from. Texas A&M, after trailing in the first quarter, led the rest of the game.
And it wasn’t all on Rattler. South Carolina had eight total penalties for 45 yards, including a personal foul on Legette.
Still, the Gamecocks managed to get it to a one-score game in the fourth quarter, but the Aggies did more in the end to pull it out.
