South Carolina run defense falters in loss to Arkansas
For South Carolina, things start defensively up front and stopping the run.
After fairing nicely against the run last week, some of the Gamecocks’ weaknesses in that department popped up again in a 44-30 loss to Arkansas.
South Carolina allowed 295 yards on the ground Saturday with the Razorbacks averaging nearly five yards per carry when taking out sack yardage.
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“There’s no question we’ve got to be able to run the ball and stop the run to win football games, especially against a team like Arkansas,” Shane Beamer said. “They just lineup offensively and just try to bludgeon you to death.”
The rushing attack ultimately propelled Arkansas to victory, with five touchdowns coming from four different Razorbacks on the ground.
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After the game, Beamer added that he wasn’t any more impressed with Arkansas’ physicality on offense than he was before the game saying, “we knew how talented and physical and big they were.”
Arkansas running back Raheim Sanders dominated the South Carolina defense, rushing for a career-high 156 yards.
In addition, Sanders not only averaged 6.5 yards per carry but he also had four explosive plays of at least 12 yards. Two of those runs were 45 and 47 yards, respectively, and it seemed at times that there was no hope in bringing Sanders down to the ground.
“We might’ve had some misalignments but they were a pretty good team,” Jordan Burch said. “I feel like the effort was there for the defense, we just gotta make tackles.”
Though the season is only a few weeks old, Sanders already has two 100+ yard games on the ground and now has three to his name for his young career.
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While Sanders was certainly the highlight of Arkansas’ run game on Saturday, KJ Jefferson also made a notable impact. Jefferson ran for 67 yards on the ground and also tallied a rushing touchdown.
“He’s a weapon, he can run the football, he took a lot of hits today and just kept bouncing up,” Beamer said. “I thought our guys came up and attacked him too, he had some runs.”
When he wasn’t scrambling, Jefferson simply made it hard on the South Carolina defense because he wouldn’t go down to the ground. He was only sacked twice in the game and the Gamecocks had multiple opportunities to bring him down but just couldn’t at times.
“We knew all week in practice that he was a big guy, like 245, coach was telling us to rally to the football and run your feet when you get your hands on him,” Burch said.
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Outside of what Arkansas themselves did, injuries to starters like Mo Kaba, Jordan Strachan, and Cam Smith certainly didn’t help the South Carolina run defense.
Neither Beamer nor Burch used this as an excuse, simply saying they had to get better next week.
“Injuries weigh a lot on us but our backups, our freshmen coming in taking starters spots and filling in for them, they helped a lot,” Burch said. “There’s a lot of things we can clean up but you know next man up when somebody’s hurt.”
