Tip of Fate

Well, I will be the first to say I did not see the game going that way at all. I was pleasantly surprised that our offense actually can score some points. I was on point with one comment that our defense would win the game for us, as Rennie Curran did in the final seconds.

The offense looked better, but was not exactly clicking. We only produced 308 total yards of offense. We had 107 rushing yards and 201 passing yards. Samuel looked really good I thought, he was punishing the Gamecock defense with his power runs. Samuel only had 15 carries but did average 4.3 yards a carry. Caleb King did not play again hopefully will be able to play by the next game. Green looked outstanding as usual, minus the fumble in the first quarter. I am not sold on Cox, especially since he will be gone next year. I would much rather see some of our younger QB's start getting some snaps and let us prepare them. I would like to see Gray get some more snaps in and let him run the wildcat a few times or some type of option package. We keep hearing about this kid, but unless I missed something he only took one snap the whole game. Green is obviously the go-to-guy but defensive coordinators are going to find a way to stop him and then we are going to be out luck in the passing game. We need to start getting Tavarius King and the two freshman Orson Charles and Marlon  Brown some more action, so we can take some of the pressure off of Green. We have always been a run first team and again we have the O-line and the personal to continue this tradition. Brandon Smith, not to much I can say about this kid, but man is he FAST. I think he is one of the fastest players I have ever seen wear the red and black. Let's just for say for the time being, keep him off returns until he learns how to handle the ball properly.

The defense could not stop the pass for anything. We gave up 313 yards in the air to what I believe is a very mediocre offense, which had two touchdowns called back due to penalties. Martinez needs to learn to switch his schemes up and not play zone all game. Yes, we did not give up a lot of big plays, but we got smoked on the short and intermediate routes all night long. The longest pass they completed might have been for only 20 yards,  but the average was 10 yards a completion. Nothing like averaging a first down every time you complete a pass. Giving up over 100 yards on the ground when we have what I consider one of the best tandem of DT's in the conference is pretty poor. Week one I would give our defense a 'A-' grade and Week two a 'C'. I just hope that this is not going to be another 2008 where we had two different defense and we never knew which one would show up. If we are giving up 37 points to South Carolina then it is going to be an extremely painful year when we play Florida or LSU. 

Oh the savior of the day for us. THANK GODNESS FOR SPECIAL TEAMS. Blair Walsh hit his second 50+ yard field goal of the year and Boykin I think will be one heck of a returner. Boykin alone averaged 46.75 yards a return on four returns which is just outstanding. Smith I would like to be our second choice when it comes to returns. He has the speed to return balls but made a really bad choice of trying to return one kick that was seven yards deep, by fumbling the ball. Luckily the defense held them to only three points on that costly turnover. When the opposing team has to only punt the ball one time you also might be having a problem on defense, but I think I have addressed that enough as it is. 

Overall I would give us a 'C' grade for the day. Offense still needs a lot of work for us to compete against the SEC. Defense needs to get more pressure on the QB and be able to stop the run. Also though is we can stop the run play some more man and blitz so we can cause some turnovers. If we cannot stop the pass we are in for long day against the Razorbacks but more on that later in the week.