Missed opportunities hurt South Carolina offense in final minutes Saturday
South Carolina was in the driver’s seat. Up by 10 points with nine minutes to go.
It looked poised to get back to .500 and get an important conference win. All it had to do was keep chugging along.
But things changed as the fourth quarter wore on. The defense was giving up big plays and the offense couldn’t generate successful drives.
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As a result, Florida overcame the double-digit deficit and left with a 41-39 win over the Gamecocks on Saturday.
“Disappointed that we got a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and couldn’t finish it. That’s not like us,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “There were some great individual plays and efforts out there tonight, but at the end of the day, we didn’t make enough plays.”
After Joshua Simon scored on a 33-yard touchdown to take a 37-27 lead, the Gators were forced into a corner and had to respond. Otherwise, the game would be in jeopardy.
It took 14 plays and nearly five minutes, but the Gators converted on two fourth downs and marched down the field and cut the deficit to three.
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With just over four minutes left, the Gamecocks still had a chance to put a nail in the coffin. One more good drive would force Florida to burn its timeouts and make time an ally.
“Let’s be honest, as soon as they got the ball back, we were talking on offense about let’s have our two-minute offense ready, because we hadn’t stopped them all day,” Beamer said.
On the second play of the drive, Spencer Rattler looked to throw to Ahmarean Brown. As the ball left his hand, he was hit hard by Florida’s Cam Jackson, who would be flagged for roughing the passer. Instead of looking at a third down, there was new life for the offense.
But three plays later, the Gamecocks couldn’t move the ball any further. At this time, they faced a fourth and long situation around midfield and elected to punt.
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Florida now controlled its own destiny. Go down and score or go home empty-handed.
After three straight incompletions, the Gators faced fourth and 10 at their own 25. In this do-or-die moment, Graham Mertz hit his favorite target, Ricky Pearsall, for a huge first down.
Florida continued to drive down the field and would score on a 21-yard touchdown catch by Pearsall with 51 seconds to go.
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All of a sudden, the Gamecocks were trailing. But they still had one more chance to right the ship.
After completing an 11-yard pass to Dakereon Joyner, Rattler looked deep and fired up a long pass that would be intercepted. Ball game.
“I was just trying to make a play,” Rattler said. “I think there were 19 seconds left, three timeouts. Could have protected the ball there. It’s rare with me. I’ve got to be better in that moment. It won’t happen again.”
Despite scoring two touchdowns to start the fourth quarter, the offense got progressively worse as the game winded down. South Carolina only had one first down in the final five minutes of the game — and it came off a penalty.
“As a group, you know, we might just have had to do more,” Rattler said. “There were some drives we could have extended, some things we would have done better to help them out.
“We try to play complimentary football. It’s not just the defense. There’s a lot of other plays throughout the game. But we’re gonna get better. We know we need to get better at it and we’re just gonna keep working.”
