Rush defense facing massive test against perimeter-run-heavy Florida
If there’s been one bugaboo for South Carolina defensively over the last two seasons, it’s been on the ground.
The Gamecocks have struggled against quality rushing attacks the last two seasons. Those problems have been exacerbated over the last two weeks.
South Carolina has given up two of its more concerning performances stopping the run against Missouri and Vanderbilt, and now the Gamecocks have to face an even more dangerous Florida ground game.
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“Going back to last week, it was just missed tackles honestly. When you miss tackles, you give up explosive runs,” Shane Beamer said. “We misfit a couple of gaps against Vanderbilt, for sure. And weren’t exactly where we needed to be or came in with improper leverage or whatever it may be. Then a run spits out of there. If you can fit the run the right way and at least tackle well, you’ll be pretty good from a run-defense standpoint.”
Last week, South Carolina missed 16 tackles while Vanderbilt zipped up and down the field averaging 6.1 sack-adjusted yards per carry.
The deficiencies in the run game have largely come on the edge. South Carolina has struggled to defend the perimeter run game the last two weeks.
Of the 382 rushing yards Missouri and Vanderbilt combined for, 240 came off tackle or on the edge. The two teams combined to average 5.1 yards per carry on perimeter runs. They averaged 2.1 yards after contact per rush.
Of the 10 rushes of at least 10 yards South Carolina allowed over the last two games, six have been on edge rushes.
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“Breaking down those two games, there were a lot of perimeter runs and missed tackles,” Clayton White said. “If a DB misses a tackle, a lot of times those are going to be big plays. We have to do a great job of knocking it down on the back end and linebackers have to be more aggressive fitting and helping the D-line taking the double teams.”
The bad news for South Carolina is now it has to defend against a Florida rushing attack built on attacking the edge.
Of the Gators’ 305 rushes, 123 are considered off-tackle or on the perimeter. The Gators are averaging 6.9 yards per edge rush attempt, headlined by a 76-yard rush by quarterback Anthony Richardson.
Florida has 23 runs of 10 or more yards on edge rushes.
Stopping the run is certainly a key every week. But it’s even more so against a group that can really make South Carolina’s rush defense pay.
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“We weren’t good enough last week at tackling and certainly misfit some runs. I don’t think it’s something where we’re in panic mode,” Beamer said. “We’ve been pretty good at it for the most part and handled some run games here leading up to the point. We haven’t been good the last couple weeks. This a really big challenge this week.”
