Shane Beamer assesses South Carolina's defensive performance against Texas A&M
A week ago against Missouri, South Carolina’s defense came out flat. Outside of a three-and-out to start the game, the Gamecocks defense couldn’t stop a car without a motor from driving.
That changed this past weekend against Texas A&M as South Carolina was able to force three sacks on the first 11 plays.
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“I loved the effort they played with. They were flying around the field,” said coach Shane Beamer. “You watch Stone Blanton, you watch Debo (Williams), you watch Nick Emmanwori on that play down in the red zone that he broke that pass up — nobody can question our effort watching our guys play yesterday. That’s what we need to continue to build on. That’s what we should look like defensively.”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. As Beamer pointed out, there were a few plays in the second quarter by special teams that didn’t do South Carolina’s defense any favors with field position. But still, there’s some issues that continue to occur that he knows needs to be cleaned up.
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“We’ve got to continue to execute better. We had some miscues there from a mental standpoint where either one d-lineman slants the wrong way and it ends up in a run. Or, we don’t adjust properly to one of their formations up front and it turns into a touchdown when it should really be a one-yard gain, in my opinion. So, we’ve got to get better at that, both players and coaches.”
Perhaps one of the more frustrating consistencies as of late with South Carolina’s defensive is their inability to force turnovers. Following being blanked again in the takeaway column this past weekend, the Gamecocks have gone 13 straight quarters without forcing a turnover. USC last forced a turnover in the second quarter against Tennessee on Sep. 30.
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“We were close yesterday and that’s the thing that makes you sick is that there’s so many missed opportunities. We have a punt that bounces off of one of their guys and they’re able to come up with it. We hit their quarterback and he fumbles and they come up with it. We have an opportunity where we get a couple hands up in the air potentially on a ball thrown by them and we don’t intercept it. Missed opportunities there. So, probably just takeaways knowing that we were close. Those will come but we’d love to see more of those for sure.”
