Sunday Reaction to South Carolina's Loss on the Road to LSU

South Carolina came into Baton Rouge, Louisiana, desparately looking to keep their playoff hopes alive on Saturday night. While the outcome wasn't what the team wanted, there were promising signs that shows the team is at least getting better in certain spots.

Quick recap:

The first half was a tight game that featured both teams making mistakes early on. South Carolina and LSU finished the half with a fumble and interception each as the Tigers went into the break up 10-7. The Gamecocks were able to tie the game on their first drive of the third quarter, but it would wind up being their last score of the evening. LSU scored a touchdown and a field goal in the second half to eventually win the game 20-10.

Positives and a Glaring Negative:

On a positive note the Gamecocks did two things well on Saturday. 1) They were able to cause the talented LSU offense a lot of problems. And 2) South Carolina may have found a running game. Unfortunately those two things were not good enough to overcome an offense that continues to struggle to score points.

Let's start off with the positives. This defense continues to show signs of improvement. It's not a perfect unit as the front seven had a problem stopping the run once again this weekend. LSU came into the game as the second worst rushing offense in the conference, only better than South Carolina, and still managed to find a way to run for 168 yards and average 6.0 yards per carry. Despite this, they held LSU to 20 points at home and came away with two interceptions and a fumble. If they can find a way to be a better run stopping team, this has the potential to be a great unit the rest of the way.

Speaking of the running game, as mentioned above, South Carolina entered Saturday with the league's worst rushing attack, averaging under 100 yards per game. After the loss, they jumped ahead of LSU in that category and now averaged 115.4 yards per game. This is now back to back games that the rushing attack has been great. Against Kentucky, the Gamecocks ran for 178 yards and 3.7 yards per carry. This week against a good LSU defense, they were able to gain 193 yards on the ground for 4.3 yards per carry. For an offense that is struggling to score points, finding an efficient run game is paramount as it will keep them from being one dimensional.

Something has to change with this offense. Maybe the simple answer is the injuries along the offensive line holding back what this offense could be, but let's take a look at the following games against power four opponents and South Carolina's offensive scoring in those matchups. Against Virginia Tech, one of the nation's worst teams, the offense scored 17 points. Against Vanderbilt, it was seven points. Against Missouri, it was 20. Against Kentucky, it was 21. And last night against LSU, only 10.

Outside of punt returns for touchdowns and defensive scores, the South Carolina offense is averaging 15 points per game against Power Four opponents. That will not win football games especially with the upcoming schedule South Carolina has. This is a key issue that Mike Shula has to figure out before this season goes off the rails.

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