Sunday stats: key numbers to tell the story from the Georgia loss
There were a lot of good things in South Carolina’s 24-14 loss to Georgia but plenty of things to clean up and improve on as the Gamecocks watched a 14-3 halftime lead evaporate.
South Carolina had a fantastic first half before struggling out of the break for a variety of reasons, and it’s time to take a look at a few numbers that can help tell the story of this game.
Tale of two halves
One of the biggest reasons South Carolina got off to a big lead is how efficient the Gamecocks were in the first half. But that dried up in the second for a few reasons.
South Carolina scored 14 points on four drives in the first half with an insanely good 53.8 percent success rate. The Gamecocks had a success rate of over 50 percent when passing the ball in the first half with Spencer Rattler going 16-for-18 and 152 yards with a score in the first half.
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The Gamecocks also had a 57.1 percent success rate when running the ball in the first half on seven attempts.
Things changed, though, in the second half with a success rate of under 20 percent when throwing the ball and a success rate of 50 percent on rushing plays. Those rushes, though were largely Rattler getting out of the pocket and scrambling. The only successful run by a running back Saturday was a seven-yard rush from Dakereon Joyner on a drive ending in a punt.
Those numbers continue to be stark with the Gamecocks averaging just four yards per play to Georgia’s 6.9 plays after halftime. In the first half, South Carolina averaged 6.9 yards per pass compared to Georgia’s 4.5.
While the running game stayed largely the same in either half, the passing game struggled to be efficient for a few reasons. There were a few critical drops, Georgia dialed pressure up a little bit more and the Gamecocks didn’t get a lot of good field position.
The run game(s)
The run game is somewhat hard to evaluate given South Carolina largely abandoned it in the game plan for things like screens, quick passes and other run substitutes. But when it was going, the Gamecocks were somewhat efficient.
South Carolina averaged 4.7 yards per carry on first down, two on second, 7.5 on third and nine on fourth down with an overall stuff rate of 23 percent (runs of zero or fewer yards) and a stop rate of 46 percent (rushes of two or fewer yards).
The Gamecocks only had two rushes of at least 10 yards and one of at least 12, both by Spencer Rattler. Georgia, meanwhile, had six rushes of at least 10 yards and five of at least 12.
South Carolina averaged more sack-adjusted yards per carry (5.2) than Georgia did (4.8) but those numbers were largely inflated by Rattler’s scrambles at the end of the game.
Running backs averaged 2.7 yards per attempt.
Defensively, Georgia only had a stuff rate of 12 percent and a stop rate of 29 percent. Of Georgia’s 41 runs, 21 of those (51 percent) went for at least four yards. So the Gamecocks weren’t really getting a ton of negative plays in the run game and Georgia was able to make more plays in the run game.
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The offensive line averaged 1.83 yards of push per carry, which was comparable to Georgia’s (1.88).
Under pressure
South Carolina’s offensive line largely held up for the first half and struggled to keep pressure off of Rattler in the second half. It turned into Rattler being pressured on a whopping 47.1 percent of his dropbacks.
Rattler dropped back 51 times per PFF with 27 of those in a clean pocket and 24 turning into pressures. Rattler handled the pressure somewhat well, only taking three sacks. He scrambled three times and had five throwaways with one drop.
On those 24 dropbacks he went 6-for-18 (adjusted completion percentage of 53.8) for 84 yards (4.7 yards per attempt) and a pick. A lot of those issues in the second half came with Rattler under pressure and the offense bogging down because of it.
Conversely, the Gamecocks struggled to pressure Carson Beck really at all. Beck faced pressure on five of his 38 dropbacks Saturday despite South Carolina blitzing on 36.8 percent of those dropbacks.
So not only did South Carolina struggle to affect Beck up front, the blitzes they dialed up didn’t do as much as hoped. If there was a positive, the Gamecocks did turn five pressures into two sacks.
But there needs to be more havoc plays up front. Only nine percent of Georiga’s plays ended in a pass deflection, tackle for loss or turnover with 6.4 percent of that coming from the front seven. Georgia, meanwhile, had a 24.1 percent havoc rate with 12.1 credited to the front seven.
Explosiveness, missed tackles
South Carolina had two fewer explosive plays than Georgia, five to seven. The explosive play rate was almost identical as well: 8.6 percent for South Carolina, 8.9 percent for Georgia. South Carolina for the season has five rushes of 12-plus yards this season: four from Spencer Rattler, one from Dakereon Joyner.
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The issue, though, was the efficiency when not creating those chunk plays. The Gamecocks on non-explosive plays averaged 3.4 yards per play Saturday compared to averaging 26 yards per explosive.
Georgia, on the other hand, averaged 20.9 yards per explosive play but averaged a full yard per play more (4.3) on normal plays compared to South Carolina.
That’s been maybe the biggest issue for South Carolina this season and was again on Saturday. The problem becomes, to a degree, lack of making plays in space on Saturday.
South Carolina’s wide receivers forced three missed tackles, two of those by Juice Wells. The only other receiver to notch one was Trey Knox. Georgia’s receivers forced five on the day.
The Gamecocks had five missed tackles forced in the run game: two from Rattler, two from Joyner, one from Anderson. Georgia’s running backs combined to force 11 missed tackles with six coming from Daijuan Edwards.
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