South Carolina vs. Florida: Post Game Grades for Gamecocks Loss vs. Florida

When it rains it pours, Gamecock Nation...

Despite holding Florida to 21 points on only 29 yards (that one makes you fart twice when you read it), the South Carolina Gamecocks became their own worst enemy at exactly the wrong time in the wrong place.

And along the way Steve Spurrier went all-in with putting in Dylan Thompson for Connor Shaw, but it was a bad beat for the Ol Ball Coach as the rout was on in Gainesville as No. 7 South Carolina fell to No. 2 Florida 44-11 in a game that never seemed to be in reach for the Gamecocks. 

Thus we begin the Bataan Death March that is grading and analyzing South Carolina in the main phases of the game against the still undefeated Florida Gators.

Quarterbacks

Overall Game Grade: F

Connor Shaw and Dylan Thompson shared time equally against Florida and were equally abysmal in trying to move the ball downfield for the Gamecocks.

Shaw finished 9 of 20 for 72 yards and looked completely out of his element in trying to be strictly a pocket passer once the Gators hit 21 in the second quarter.

It was Shaw's fumble on the first play of the game for South Carolina that set the tone for the Gamecocks' failures, as the Gators converted the first of three turnovers into touchdowns.

Thompson's second half was not the turnaround South Carolina fans were looking for as he completed only 8 passes for 83 yards, even tacking on an interception for good measure.

Sorry, Dylan, but Florida is not UAB or East Carolina. They will come after you, and they did in droves.

Kid's got a hell of an arm, just not enough experience handling pressure in the pocket.

Runningbacks

Overall Game Grade: D

Was Marcus Lattimore's hip injury exaggerated going into the game? Maybe, but we'll never really know when he only got three carries for 13 yards.

Kenny Miles, the capable backup for the Gamecocks last season, produced only 11 yards on four carries, and freshman Mike Davis actually led the way with a forgettable 20 yards on six carries

Does it seem fair to score them so low when the coaches completely abandoned the run in the second half?

Well, they didn't do any favors for themselves by being inefficient when they got their chance.

Wide Receivers

Overall Game Grade: Incomplete

I honestly can't believe I could find a photo taken of any of the South Carolina receivers in the game against Florida.

Seriously. For anyone who watched the game against the Gators, try to find a standout play by one of the wide receivers.

The fact is, Ace Sanders, Bruce Ellington, and D.L. Moore never seemed to come up with the big play downfield when the Gamecocks needed a big offensive play to get back into the game.

I should grade them somewhere between D and C, but their second half performances were such no-shows due to Florida's coverage downfield and Thompson's affinity to run for his life or eat turf that it just wouldn't seem fair.

Really missed Alshon Jeffrey about now. Then again, what good is a wide receiver if the quarterback can't get them the ball?

Tight Ends

Overall Game Grade: Incomplete

The first image I pulled up of Justice Cunningham is him sitting on the bench.

That's where he might as well have been as he and Rory Anderson, like the Gamecock wide receivers were not really a significant part of the offense against Florida.

Combined, Cunningham and Anderson had three catches for 33 yards and might have been a security blanket for Connor Shaw early but were quickly relegated to position holders by the second half.

Three catches for 33 yards.

I don't know what else you can say about that.

Offensive Line

Overall Game Grade: D

Picking up where they left off against LSU, the Gamecocks' offensive line showed no ability to create holes in the running game, and when the offense needed to rely on the passing game, never seemed to give an honest amount of protection for Connor Shaw or especially Dylan Thompson.

I wouldn't pin the first fumble on the offensive line since there was no one left to block for Shaw when the ball was knocked free from his grasp, but certainly they struggled to get in any sort of rhythm.

Their first real drive of the game of 64 yards that resulted in a field goal was due mostly to questionable Florida penalties that kept the offense on the field. Can't give too many points for that.

Defensive Line

Overall Game Grade: C+

And The Predator is smiling....

I can't scale the defensive line as low as the offensive, even though they gave up 44 points to the Gators.

Once again, giving them three short fields to defend on three turnovers was not even fair to Lorenzo Ward's linemen. But there can't be any excuses. The Gamecocks could not keep Florida out of the end zone, bottom line.

Would it have made a difference if they had been held to field goals? Well, when you can't run the ball or pass the ball, I would say no.

If there was a critical stand they needed to make it was that first drive of the second half when Florida scored a touchdown. Granted, South Carolina blocked the extra point and returned it back for two points, but the damage had been done, and the Gamecocks never recovered.

Jadeveon Clowney's stats don't reflect it, but he brought the chaos early to Florida's offensive schemes and was a huge part of the reason the Gators weren't getting anything more than the points they were getting off short fields.

Laugh it up, fuzzball.

Linebackers

Overall Game Grade: C

I'll scale DeVonte Holloman and the South Carolina linebackers on the nearly same level as the defensive line with the exception that them and the defensive backs left painfully wide open passes for Jeff Driskel to dink and dunk for four touchdown passes inside the South Carolina 20 yard line.

But it was early on that Holloman destroyed Driskel on a Florida third down on their first true drive of the game that almost seemed to set the trend for the Gamecocks on defense all day.

Unfortunately and not surprisingly, they wore down under the pressure of having to play significantly more than the offense and could only do so much for the Gamecocks' cause.

Credit to the defensive line and the linebackers, though, for limiting Mike Gillislee to only 37 yards, who was expected to be the focal point of the Gators' attack.

Silver lining somewhere, right?

Secondary

Overall Game Grade: C

Florida had only 93 yards passing, which right there should be a compliment to the defense and the secondary.... Right? Shouldn't it?

Sorry, no.

If you haven't gathered by now, three Gamecock turnovers gave Florida nearly the shortest fields possible, which the defensive line and linebackers seemed to hold up against decently. But when Jeff Driskel bombed it for 10 yards or less to open receivers in the end zone, the secondary (along with the linebackers from the previous slide) got the finger point for the break down.

But take away those short fields and the secondary did modestly well without creating any turnovers themselves for the cause.

Special Teams

Overall Game Grade: F

Yay, a blocked extra point in the third quarter! Two points, Gamecocks!

Yeah, doesn't make up for the 14 given up by elementary fumbles on amateur returns in the first half.

Can't be understated enough.

Ace Sanders, with as much praise as he had received throughout the last few weeks, contributed to the special teams woes with his second quarter fumble after completely misplaying a punt in the first quarter.

Oh, and Florida blocked a field goal for good measure. Almost forgot about that.

Snake eyes watching you, indeed, Lemmy.

Tack on Damiere Byrd's run back from the end zone and failure to protect the ball during the second quarter, and the Gamecocks' special teams unit just found its way to front street during the film session of tonight's game.

The singular most devastating failure in the Gamecocks' execution against Florida.

Coaching

Overall Game Grade: D+

Spurrier did what Spurrier does: he put a coin in the quarterback carousel and unleashed Dylan Thompson on the Florida Gators.

Wait, I'm sorry, I had that backwards. The Gators unleashed on Thompson and left the sophomore with plenty of game film to work on his craft throughout the rest of 2012 and 2013.

A humbling and nearly demoralizing performance for the sophomore quarterback.

The offensive game plan was out the window by the second quarter once the Gators had hit 21 points. The running game was ineffective for the second game in a row, and the passing game tried to be something it hasn't been for most of the season: a deep ball threat.

Sadly this outweighs Lorenzo Ward's effort to keep the Gators at bay on defense for most of the first half before things got out of hand.

What will be a testament to Spurrier as a coach is how he can turn this losing streak around with Tennessee and Arkansas still around the corner in the Gamecocks' final two SEC games of the season.

Hey, the Chic fil-A Bowl is still respectable! Wait, is the Carquest Bowl still around?