Gamecocks' offense needs to display vast improvement against Alabama

COLUMBIA Dowell Loggains doesnt read the numbers.

Im not a stat guy.

I dont care about stats, I dont look at stats, South Carolina's offensive coordinator declared last week.

He has a point.

The only stat that matters is wins and losses, and even after the road apple USC left on the field against Mississippi , the Gamecocks are 3-2.

Plus, nobody needs to look at the numbers for the offense hes coordinating.

Theyre way past the threshold for the amount of ugliness a man can stomach.

USC is running the ball pretty well.

The rushing offense is 43rd in the country (out of 133).

Passing is 110.

Scoring is 74.

Total offense is 93.

But a segment of the offense is No.

1.

Thats in sacks allowed (22).

The first step of any offense is the offensive line, and the Gamecocks, after Ole Miss collected six sacks, now lead the country in letting their quarterback get taken down.

Gamecocks seeking substantial improvement on third down USC head coach Shane Beamer took a diplomatic approach on Tuesday after he said he was in the office at 5:15 a.m.

on Sunday grinding through the film.

And he isnt deaf or blind: A coach who is online a lot has definitely heard and read the complaints about the Gamecocks offense.

But there have been no major switcheroos.

Were certainly not changing everything about the program.

Thats for sure, Beamer said.

I dont think things were as bad where Im just going to come in here on Sunday morning and blow up everything in the program.

Not what the USC faithful wanted to hear, as many have been screaming for a firing.

And the situation is foreboding: The Gamecocks are at No.

7 Alabama this week and at No.

18 Oklahoma next week with a bye week following that.

Without significant offensive improvement over the next two games, who knows what that bye week could bring? Lets look at what were doing.

Lets look at who were doing it with.

Do we have the right people in the right places? And then lets look at how we are coaching it to be done because we werent good enough on Saturday, and how do we finish drives better?, Beamer said.

Lets look at how were practicing because I dont think there are a lot of things that I looked at on Saturday and said, Well, that was a horse crap scheme, why are we doing that? Or, Why are we calling this? To me, it was more just the details and execution of how were doing it.

Looking at the numerous issues: Cant do much of anything without a stout offensive line.

The rushing game has been good despite a troubling tendency to open lanes.

The Gamecocks really succeed when they have runners like Rocket Sanders, who can bowl over defenders or break their first tackles.

But pass protection has been abysmal.

USC simply cannot keep heat off LaNorris Sellers and Robby Ashford.

Its not just the offensive line, Loggains said, listing that the quarterback needs to release the ball quicker, the tight ends and receivers need to block and/or get open, the running backs need to block as well.

The SECs a trench game.

Thats what glared from Ole Miss.

USC ran the ball, ran tempo, ran a lot of plays, especially in the second half, seemingly to set up a deep pass.

Hardly any arrived, mostly because Sellers never had time to let the receivers get downfield, set his feet and throw.

It just wasnt there, Sellers said.

They dropped down into zone coverage, we had to drop it down where they werent.

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Run the ball, grind clock, keep Ole Miss offense off the field.

USC crossed the 50 seven times and had five drives of eight plays or more.

But only scored three points.

I feel like they had a different package for us, Sanders said.

They did a little bit more stunting than we thought.

Sanders played last week but wasnt 100 percent after an ankle injury against Akron.

Oscar Adaway started in his place.

On USCs first possession, Sellers fired a quick out to tight end Josh Simon on first down and Adaway carried twice, once into the middle, once left, before the disastrous fake punt.

Adaway finished with nine carries for 34 yards.

Sellers was the teams leading rusher.

Ashford was being counted on to provide more depth in Saturdays rushing game, to give Ole Miss a different look.

He fumbled on his only play, it was quickly 14-0, and then he couldnt come back in.

We cant put the ball on the ground, Loggains said.

Receivers were a concern coming into the season.

There just wasnt much proven.

Although Mazeo Bennett has certainly blossomed and Gage Larvadain is getting there, thats still the case five games in.

There were certainly times Sellers just needed to get rid of the ball against Ole Miss.

There were several more times his receivers could not get open.

If it was as simple as, This is what it is, were gonna fix it, Loggains said.

But theres a million little things that go into making this thing right.

Gamecock takeaways from a puzzling loss to Ole Miss: What was that? Two turnovers.

Offensive pass interference.

Holding.

Jared Brown caught a pass with 30 yards of grass in front of him, tripped and fell short of a first down (hes out for Alabama with an injury ).

Loggains also seems to send his backs and receivers in motion only to pull them back, looking like an NFL middle-of-the-field hash-mark strategy instead of using the much wider college hashes.

You have to stop the things that lose football games, Loggains said, asked if its kind of like a game of Whack-A-Mole on solving one problem, only to have another pop up.

Dropped balls, penalties, sacks.

Ole Miss dared USC to throw with a goal of keeping runners in front of them.

It worked.

The Gamecocks made too many mistakes.

That worked, for Ole Miss.

Loggains and USC will be under the microscope the rest of the season, particularly the next two weeks.

And theyre views that will have to be taken with an asterisk: USC will be the underdog the next two games, so even greatly improved offense might not matter in the most important stat.

The goal is to score more points.

We have three times, we havent twice, Loggains said.

Competition creates pressure.

And pressure defines who you are, it makes you the best version of yourself most of the time.

Hes under pressure.

The Gamecocks need to see his best beginning at noon Saturday..

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