Arkansas at South Carolina Post-Game: Thoughts / Topics for Discussion Thread
by Gamecock Man on Nov 6, 2010 11:08 PM EDT
in South Carolina Gamecocks Football
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PrintAs you might expect, I'm pretty much at a loss for words regarding how to describe what just happened, so I'm going to keep this short and sleep on a more detailed analysis. Hopefully the morning will bring a little clarity...and perhaps a smidgen of the confidence I once had about next week's game.
1. This was largely an execution loss. The players were generally either hurt or playing flat. Stephen Garcia had an off night. Pass protection was horrible. Marcus Lattimore was sluggish / hurt. Our receivers played more or less like they did last year against UConn. Our secondary is completely depleted, doesn't know how to tackle, and commits stupid, needless penalties. Hopefully some of these things will improve with a title on the line next weekend.
What happened to Garcia's new-found ability to find the dump-off play? We missed out on two or three third-down conversions because Garcia failed to see Lattimore open on the sidelines.
2. This may surprise you, but I'm generally not too unhappy with the offensive playcalling. There were a couple of moments that miffed me a little, like when we got down on Arkansas's five-yard line on a key early drive and threw the ball three times, followed by a missed FG. If we were throwing the ball because Lattimore was hurting, then Brian Maddox should have been in the game. Other than that, though, I thought we had a decent game plan. Steve Spurrier saw that Arkansas wasn't going to give Lattimore any running room in the middle, and he drew up some nice remedies, such as asking Garcia to run the ball a little more than usual. If the execution had been there--if more of Garcia's passes are on the money, if our receivers catch a few more balls, etc.--this one might have gone differently. Alas.
That said, let's not give the coaches too much of a pass-it's their job to get the team in the right mindset to play the game, and they failed tonight. Utterly.
3. Ryan Mallett is a great QB. As a downfield passer, he's on another level compared to the rest of the SEC's QBs. I was also generally impressed with his ability to get rid of the ball under pressure. The guy is shiftier than he looks. Certainly, if there was anyone wondering who the second-best QB in the SEC is coming into this game, that question has been answered. It's Mallett.
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In all honesty, I pin this again on the coaches.
It’s true that they can’t go out there and execute for our players, and it’s true that our team was a discombobulated mess that seemed entirely disinterested in playing tonight. But therein lies the problem: Why were they so disinterested?
Preparing for a game is not just about the X’s and O’s. It’s also about getting your mind right. And after this loss to drive it home, I remain convinced the biggest obstacle holding Carolina back is attitude and motivation. If the coaches are apathetic or don’t think a game matters, how can we expect the players to feel any different?
Of course, we heard all week that the coaches and team weren’t going to look past Arkansas. But we know now that it was lip service because that’s exactly what happened. We didn’t even LOOK competitive — we mailed it in from the opening kickoff, which Ellis Johnson himself admitted.
Time and time again, I’ve watched Carolina rise to the occasion and get a signature win — Ole Miss, Bama, Florida, and so on. But that signature win has yet to turn into a signature season. We have yet to play like a championship team. Time and time again, we struggle against the likes of Vanderbilt, UConn, and others, frequently allowing them to scuttle our seasons when we should have run them off the field. And why? Because our players don’t care. They think Vanderbilt sucks, or that they should have beaten UConn simply because we’re in the SEC (this is literally something that a player paraphrased). They don’t WANT to play hard for those games like they play hard for Bama, Florida, etc.
Our staff attracts great talent, but I’m not so convinced they know how to coach that talent to get hungry and think like winners.
I agree with almost everything you just said.
This is exactly what happened in this game. Our players, for whatever reason, weren’t in the kind of mindset they were in when we played Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama, and they played like it.
If we play like this again this year, I’ll be leading the charge calling for Spurrier’s head, and I’ll probably quote a large part of what you just said.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Nov 7, 2010 12:37 AM EDT up reply actions
I said I expect 10 regular season wins, and that's what I meant.
This team is too talented to not win 10 games. The secondary is the vast majority of the problem, and we have big time prospects in the secondary. The unit was fine in the past. There is no excuse for what they’ve devolved into. As far as I’m concerned I want Spurrier gone. The only thing that would convince me otherwise is if we somehow came out of this season with a conference championship. Winning the East isn’t even close to enough to satisfy me anymore. People can say that’s unreasonable, but look at the talent on the team. It is a very balanced team in all respects. A good coach would’ve taken this team and run with it all the way to Atlanta and beyond.
stuff 'bout stuff.
by silver82blade on Nov 7, 2010 2:10 AM EDT up reply actions
Even a bungling Florida team with no established quarterback completely obliterated Kentucky and Vanderbilt. That’s the difference between good coaching and serviceable coaching. I’m tired of serviceable. I’d gladly risk going back to horrible if it meant there was a chance to get to good.
stuff 'bout stuff.
by silver82blade on Nov 7, 2010 2:15 AM EDT up reply actions
You know...
if we had looked OK tonight, even in a loss, I’d probably be willing to argue with you about this, because I’m not absolutely committed to canning Spurrier if we don’t get to 10 wins. But we didn’t look good at all tonight. We looked like any second rate ACC team and got whipped by an Arkansas team that’s good but not great, and that’s absolutely unacceptable considering the talent we have. I mean, other than at QB, where does Arkansas have a decided talent advantage compared to us? There’s just no reason they should have been able to whip us around like they did, and at much as I hate to say it, Spurrier and his crew need to leave if they can’t put a better product on the field than that when they have so many weapons at their disposal.
I think it’s also probably worth observing at this point it’s clear Alabama, like Georgia, is hardly the juggernaut we thought they were when we beat them. This team has some major ground to make up over the next few weeks if it wants to show that it’s a top team.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
We'll probably defeat Florida and win the division, simply 'cause their pass offense is the worst part of their team.
Then, Spurrier will get a 20 year extension, or some ridiculous garbage. I think we can look forward to a bunch of seven win seasons after this year.
stuff 'bout stuff.
by silver82blade on Nov 7, 2010 2:34 AM EDT up reply actions
I'm not trying to put too much of the blame on Spurrier.
Clearly the defense is the main problem. Johnson absolutely should get huge consideration for being let go after this season. Somehow, he has turned our defense into an absolute joke. However, Spurrier is the head coach. He can’t just spend all his time on the offense. He has to know what’s going on with the defense, and he just didn’t see it coming.
As far as the offense is concerned, I think he’s done fairly well. He makes a few mind boggling calls every game, but so do most coaches. He has turned Garcia into a pretty good quarterback, the offensive line into an actual valid unit, and a lot of the play calling is competent. You can’t have a coach who doesn’t know how to manage both sides of the ball though. Plus, I think it took him way too long to make the offense as good as it is this year anyway. He has just never truly impressed me as a coach since he has been here. Maybe if he went to a less competitive conference, or an SEC team with elite recruiting, he would do better.
stuff 'bout stuff.
by silver82blade on Nov 7, 2010 2:44 AM EDT up reply actions
#2.
Really? On the missed field, goal, Arkansas runs on the field and sets up in FG block formation before we even line up. They don’t even leave a safety back. Then, we take a TO. In my mind, I’m thinking, cool we’re going to talk about this fake…. but no way Arkansas lines up like that again. We come out of the time out, Arkansas lines up again, everybody on the line for the block (no safety), and we proceed to kick the FG. Granted, we miss it, which makes it extra frustrating, but we still missed out, in my opinion. Worst case, we turn the ball over, and Arkansas has terrible field position.
The fake punt makes no sense to me. We direct snap it to our safe man, Demarco. It’s 2010. PeeWee football teams fake punts that way. It’s the most obtuse way to fake a punt, and honestly, difficult to pick up more than a few yards with. We give them the ball with a few minutes left before half time in OUR territory. Stupid.
This was on the coaches.
by SetYourBodyAblaze on Nov 7, 2010 12:28 AM EDT reply actions
Also
We ran Lattimore, like…. 11 times? What do you mean the coaches saw that Arkansas wasn’t going to give Lattimore running room? Of course not, why would they? We come out the first possession and throw 3 straight passes on a team with a horrific rushing defense.
by SetYourBodyAblaze on Nov 7, 2010 12:31 AM EDT up reply actions
I agree that the first series was the worst way to start.
But Lattimore was injured, and I think that’s why they limited his carries. I won’t argue with that decision at all, not with a much more important game next week.
Speaking of injuries, we sure got a lot, and to key players too. C.C. Whitlock and Jarriel King both have concussions, Shaw has bruised ribs, T.J. Johnson tweaked his knee, and Lattimore’s left leg was bothering him. I’m not the kind of fan who complains about physical play, but Arkansas made several dirty tackles and that hit on Shaw was absolutely out of line. They were playing to take people out tonight, even after the game had been decided.
I just hope those guys can heal up quick. Looks like Whitlock is off the shelf for next week, but we’ll see about the others.
Hmm...
Lattimore was hurt and averaged less than 3 ypc. I don’t care how bad Arkansas’s defense has played the run this year up until now; tonight they had it figured out. Maybe Maddox should have gotten some touches, or maybe we could have tried working out of some other formations more often. I do kind of wonder why we don’t run more out of the I and why we don’t run more sweeps and tosses. But other than that I don’t see any way to rationalize running the ball more. What we needed was better play from Garcia—both in terms of accuracy and finding the right receiver; like I said, if you watch the film you’ll see that he misses some big plays by ignoring the dump-down man. Would have been nice for Jason Barnes to catch some balls, too…like that one that hit him right in between his two hands. Sheesh. The defense was selling out to keep Lattimore from getting any yardage between the tackles, and there were some plays to be had vertically and along the sidelines. We just didn’t get them.
I agree that the fake punt was a waste. I’m not necessarily against calling a fake in that situation, but you’re right that that particular play never works unless it’s fourth-and-one or so.
I guess the defense is an even bigger culprit here, but we knew we’d have trouble stopping these the Hogs. Unfortunately, our secondary is really going to hurt for the rest of the year. Luckily, neither Florida or Clemson have good passing games…but I guess that was true of Tennessee, too, until they played us. I’ll have to say that I actually liked Markett, though. Surprisingly, the guys who are getting rocked all the time are Gilmore and Holloman, who were supposed to be rock solid. Someone really needs to teach Holloman how to make a good open-field tackle.
Agree with Rumblin about the questionable hits by Arkansas, but it’s football, I guess. It was a hard-hitting game.
You can take issue with the three passes to open the game, but don’t forget that if Garcia makes a better throw to Moore, it would have equaled seven.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Nov 7, 2010 12:51 AM EDT up reply actions
The throw to Moore was fine.
It landed a foot or two infront of him. He didn’t even put his hands out to try to catch it, much less dive for it. Every receiver for Carolina not named Jeffery or Gurley stunk in this game. Barnes, Moore, and Sanders all dropped relatively easy passes. Some of Garcia’s throws were off target, but that’s true of every game. He played no worse than he’s done so far. That pick while Garcia was rolling out to the right was 50% Moore’s fault in my opinion. Moore was open, yet for some reason decided he wasn’t open, so he started running down field just as Garcia mentally committed to the throw. The pass was dead on, Moore just wasn’t there for it any longer. If you’re open, you’re not supposed to break off your route and start running around.
All season long I’ve defended our reserve receivers, saying we have one of the deepest wide receiver groups in the league. They really blew it in this game though. I know they can do better, ‘cause I’ve seen it. I guess everyone has a bad game from time to time, but I am unaccustomed to seeing so many drops from Carolina receivers.
stuff 'bout stuff.
by silver82blade on Nov 7, 2010 1:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, you might be right about the throw to Moore. It's hard to even remember it right now.
It was probably a combination of the throw being slightly off and Moore not going up and getting it. You’re probably right to imply that Jeffery would have made the catch.
And I def. agree about the INT. Getting a completion on a busted play like that is all about communication between QB and WR, and Moore decided to go long on that one instead of going where Garcia was trying to throw the ball.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
I wouldn't call Whitlock a key player.
I think all our secondary players are as good as if we got a backup wide receiver to step in and play corner or safety. The spur is the only one who ever does anything. I’m not trying to be too hard on them. I know they catch a lot of flak from a lot of people, and they don’t really need more of it, but it’s just frustrating they aren’t getting any better. They don’t learn from previous games and make adjustments. If they’re having a problem with the schemes, stand up like a man, go to Ellis Johnson, and demand he change them to something more comfortable for them. Do something! Don’t just make the same mistakes week in and week out. As it is, they may as well not even show up. It’s that bad.
stuff 'bout stuff.
by silver82blade on Nov 7, 2010 1:59 AM EDT up reply actions
Funny - thought the same thing!
:(
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by rubrchickens on Nov 7, 2010 12:19 PM EST up reply actions
Lack of execution and determination
That is the best way to describe what happened in my mind.
Lack of execution from the players and coaches in all aspects of the game. Their were some good spots but those were few and far between.
Lack of determination is also a culprit here as the team just seemed to not want this game from the moment they walked on the field.
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by Flounder on Nov 7, 2010 9:23 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
Too much talent to give games away like this.
What has happened to the once-mighty Spurrier? It really is perplexing.
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No doubt it's perplexing.
In the past, Spurrier had excuses regarding the talent level that was here when he arrived. We didn’t like to hear them, but they were true to an extent. But there’s just no excuse for what happened yesterday. Just a pathetic job by the coaching staff and players.
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog By and For Gamecocks Fans.
by Gamecock Man on Nov 7, 2010 10:41 AM EST up reply actions
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