Sunday, September 19, 2010

Was It As Bad As It Looked

Injuries aside, Saturday's win was not the type of performance that the Gamecocks were anticipating. On further review, maybe the Gamecocks are not as far from clicking as it seems.

OFFENSE
Discounting a one play drive right before the half and overtime, the Gamecocks scored 5 of the 9 times they had the ball. On two of these scores, Jacksonville State was forced to kick field goals from the 3 and 10 yard lines. Once, they were forced to kick a field goal after a touchdown was called back because of a penalty.

Lets look at the other four drives. On two of the drives, Georgia State flat out stopped the Gamecocks. However, on one of the other non-scoring drives, our tight end fumbled inside the Georgia State 20 on a play that looked like it might go for a touchdown. On the last drive of regulation, the Gamecocks were moving the ball great, but ran out of time and were denied the opportunity to kick a field goal because of poor timekeeping and execution.

All in all, Jax State, playing behind a patchwork offensive line, was in scoring position on 7 of 9 drives. To only come away with 2 TD's and 2 field goals, kept the game close.

DEFENSE

3 plays haunt the Gamecocks. First, somebody did not stay home and Georgia State broke a long run on a reverse for a touchdown. In the second half, a Georgia State runner seemed to get lost at the line of scrimmage and busted a 40+ yard TD. Aside from those two plays, JSU shut down the Georgia State running game. Then, on Georgia State's last drive, Heath had an interception in his hands but was unable to come up with the catch. While giving up 27 to Georgia State was not good, it seems that the mistakes that were made can be corrected.

Finally, perhaps a little more credit is due the defense for the first two games. They held Ole Miss to 3 points in the second half. The next week, UTC only had 323 yards of offense and scored just 10 points against the Gamecocks defense (remember 7 was on a fumble for a touchdown), despite the fact that the Gamecocks turned it over 4 times in the first half. Note- this is the same UTC team that scored 42 points on 548 yards of offense against EKU and 41 points on 492 yards of offense against Appalachian State.

All in all, devastating injuries aside, the non-conference slate has been a success. Hopefully, the Gamecocks can bring everything together and play a complete game against EIU this weekend.

3 comments:

  1. Just read comments at gojaxstate.com and thought we were 0-3. Glad to hear we are 3-0. I think some of those folks wish we were.

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  2. After watching a replay of the game...the officiating crew was horrible. There was one second left on the clock after the last play in regulation. However, JSU should have never ran that last play and cut it so close. I hope they learn from it.

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  3. No, I think most of them want what is best for JSU not any one individual. We need more for who are looking out for JSU and JSU only.

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