Defensive Position Grades: South Carolina at Texas A&M
The Gamecocks' Defense under defensive coordinator Clayton White has had a rough season thus far and has struggled to find consistency. This game, however, was by far their best game and the three best quarters that they've played all season. They still made mental miscues that led to explosives and points, but they also made more good plays than bad. How did we factor this into the team's final grades for this game?
Defensive Line - B+
This group got after Max Johnson early in this game, helping create pressure and not giving Johnson a clean look downfield. They were able to win their one-on-one matchups and made plays when the Gamecocks needed to. They did a much better job of getting different guys out there as well to help this line stay fresh.
Linebackers - B
Overall, this is the best game for this group this season. Outside of a few plays, this group played smart, aggressive football and made plays, especially Debo Williams, who had an incredible game. They still have some issues at times in passing downs but had a noticeable improvement in this game.
Debo Williams assisting on a tackle
Dustin Safranek | USA Today Network
Secondary - C+
I was very close to giving this group a B grade as well, but there were too many instances where, while they played well a majority of the game, they made some mistakes that cost the team, with explosives, and poor effort in tackling. They had an arduous task defending Evan Stewart and Ainias Smith, and while they didn't shut them down, they didn't make it easy for them either outside of an explosive pass play where Smith was wide open.
The defense didn't get much help from the offense or special teams in this game, sometimes putting them in difficult situations, and had a stretch where the Aggies scored 21 unanswered, and the mistakes from the other two sides of the ball didn't help, but he defense didn't help themselves either. It was a much better game and hopefully carries over to the final four games of the season, which South Carolina has to win to go bowling.
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