Third down defense, missed tackles continuing to be areas of concern for South Carolina
Making plays on third down has been a struggle for South Carolina this year. And it reached a breaking point last Saturday.
Jacksonville State’s offense went 10-for-19 on third downs in the game. It converted more than 50 percent of the time, which is alarming for the Gamecock defense.
“It was very frustrating,” defensive coordinator Clayton White said. “We were 0-for-6 on third and one or two. Three of those were quarterback sneaks.”
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White said the main problem was missing tackles on the earlier downs.
“I watched it again this week, and we missed tackles on second down three times to make it, instead of third and seven, it’s now third and one or two. And we were 0-for-6 on third and one or two,” White said.
“It does make you go back and look at yourself, like, what is going on? But then, you’ve got to look at the whole thing. And so, on second down, we missed two or three times on a tackle at the line of scrimmage to make it third and one or two. Your percentage is going to be very low. So it goes back to tackling on second and first down.”
It would be easy for White to get mad and lash out on the players for missing tackles. But he said it’s something you really can’t get mad about. Instead, you have to help the players figure out why they couldn’t make the tackle.
“Me, Debo (Williams) and Stone (Blanton) during a special teams period today spent 10 minutes talking about angles and tackling and foot work. Just trying to get better,” White said. “You don’t have time to get mad, you really don’t. I mean, you have to coach the next play. The sun rises on Sundays, you have to go to the next day and keep it moving. Stay locked in and stay focused. Every last second is about either my family or this football team so don’t have time to get mad, you really don’t.”
South Carolina has been one of the worst teams when it comes to making those stops. Opponents have converted 43 percent of the time on third downs.
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Despite the struggles, the defense forced four turnovers to win the game. But the players know it’s the little things they have to be better about moving forward.
“There were sometimes where we should’ve been off the field and we misfit a gap or they bombed us on third and two because we thought we were getting a run and we played up. They just had us over the top, bomb route on us,” Blanton said.
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However, with three games to go in the regular season, it’s hard to make big changes to fix the issues. At this point, teams are who they are.
That doesn’t mean the defense can’t do what it can to make some adjustments. In practice, third down defense is something that’s been prioritized as of late.
“The coaches emphasize that, and the players emphasize that,” O’Donnell Fortune said. “We know we’ve got to get off the field on third down. So we’re still working on that and improving that too and getting that done to get off the field on third down.”
Ultimately, they believe it just comes down to execution.
“To get better at that, we really just have to focus on third down and really lock in on the game plan, execute what we’re told and not try to do too much, not try to make the biggest play on third down but just do your job and everything will work out on third down,” Blanton said.
