South Carolina makes positive strides defensively before tough test at Georgia
It was never going to be easy. South Carolina knew it was in for a challenge.
So when Furman scored two touchdowns in their first three drives on Saturday, it wasn’t a complete surprise. The Paladins had proven before it could hang around with the big teams.
At one point, the Gamecocks trailed 14-7 in the second quarter. But things shifted, the Gamecocks locked in, and only allowed seven points the rest of the way in a much-needed 47-21 win.
“Once you see the opposing team get on the board first, I think it’s just a mindset thing,” TJ Sanders said. “You just got to come out there and try to not give up that many more scores.”
[Win a Spencer Rattler-autographed football]
And the defense did just that. After struggling to get stops in the early going, South Carolina eventually started to handle business and won, giving up
While the offense stole the show, the defense was able to flip the script and keep the Paladins from scoring until late in the fourth quarter.
Furman averaged 7.2 yards per play in the first quarter. It only averaged 4.4 yards the rest of the game. A big part of South Carolina’s game plan was to stop the run, which was a huge part of the Paladins’ offensive scheme.
Furman rushed for just 3.3 yards per carry when adjusting for sacks on Saturday night.
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One area the defense struggled in last week was creating pressure. While the Gamecocks had two interceptions against UNC quarterback Drake Maye, they gave him a lot of time to throw and didn’t record a sack.
Saturday night was a different story, though. South Carolina had two sacks and four tackles for loss. And with the offense playing well enough, a handful of younger guys were able to get in and make plays.
One of those guys was freshman defensive tackle Xzavier McLeod. With less than a minute to go in the third quarter, the defense was able to put pressure on Furman quarterback Tyler Huff. Terrell Dawkins tipped Huff’s pass and it landed right into McLeod’s hands for the first interception of the game.
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“When I saw that, I was all smiles because I know (Xzavier) wanted this,” Sanders said. “It’s crazy, (Xzavier) actually called us at breakfast. He said, ‘I’m going to get an interception today.’ I didn’t want to believe it until it happened. I was proud of him.”
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But as both Sanders and Debo Williams pointed out after the game, there will be bigger challenges ahead. The opponents will be a lot better, which means the defense has to find ways to play better than it did on Saturday.
“At the end of the day, we just got to play like us and then everything will be fine, everything will fall into place,” Williams said.
It will get plenty tougher next week when the Gamecocks head to Athens to take on No. 1 Georgia. The Bulldogs have looked sharp this year, outscoring opponents 93-10 in two games.
Despite being major underdogs, the defense believes it will put on better performances from here on out.
“I feel like that’s definitely replicable. We can replicate that in the future many more times, not a problem,” Sanders said. “It’s just all about attacking the days leading up to the game. Sunday night, Tuesday practice, all those things that are just leading up to how we performed tonight…I feel like we’re just getting started.”
