The 2020 season continues to be the 2020 season, with late starts and weird results all over. Some things are dependably weird, though, such as Will Muschamp teams tossing out things that seemingly make no sense.
South Carolina lost 52-24 to LSU on Saturday. Do not think that anything about those numbers actually explain anything about this game.
Collin Hill threw for 10.6 yards per attempt on 22 throws. Kevin Harris ran for 10.5 per carry, racking up 126 yards on 12 rushes. Deshaun Fenwick ran for an even 7.0 yards per carry, rolling up 49 yards on seven carries. Keveon Mullins caught two balls for 101 yards, and Shi Smith had 68 yards on his two catches. Those are some pretty impressive offensive numbers.
So how did the Gamecocks only manage 24 against what had been a porous LSU defense? Well, there’s a reason I highlight finishing drives in the advanced stats reviews of Gator games. Carolina’s kicker missed three field goals, Hill tossed a pick-six around midfield, and they turned it over on downs in Tiger territory late. They had ten drives, and half of them ended in those specific fashions. The others ended in three touchdowns, one made field goal and one punt.
LSU got to pad its point total with a pair of non-offensive touchdowns. There was the aforementioned interception return as well as a kickoff return for a score. If you’ve been reading along with my work this fall, I’ve focused on discrepancies in plays run in a game. Non-offensive scores take possessions away from the scoring team and give them to the other. So, you’d expect South Carolina to have run a lot more plays, right?
You’ve figured out by now that it ain’t so. South Carolina ran 51 plays. LSU ran 75. The Tigers had nine possessions to the Gamecocks’ ten, but they converted 8-of-10 third downs to hold onto the ball for more than 37 minutes. They had drives of 16, ten, nine, eight, ten, and 11 plays. Meanwhile the Gamecocks were just 3-of-10 on third down and scoring drives of three (TD) and four (FG) plays.
If you set aside the non-offensive scores for a second and give South Carolina Evan McPherson at kicker, the offensive scoring looks something like 38-33. LSU was still the better team — they were scoring touchdowns while Carolina was kicking field goals — but it wasn’t entirely the blowout that a headline score of 52-28 would have you believe.
It was a screwy game from the standpoint of normal indicators not giving you a picture of what happened, but that’s the magic of Muschamp football. Literally anything is possible.
Meanwhile in the start of the Big Ten’s season, there was a play that reminded me of a pair of issues Florida football has had to deal with in the recent past. Penn State is up 21-20 and has a 1st & 10 at the Hoosiers’ 11-yard line after a turnover on downs. There is 1:47 left in the game, and IU has only one timeout left. What would you do if you’re Indiana?
What Tom Allen did is tell his defense to let PSU score. You can see in the highlight that several Hoosier players just don’t try to tackle the ball carrier, and one even signals touchdown after the play ends. Devyn Ford realizes as he’s crossing about the 3-yard-line that he’s taking the bait and shouldn’t go in, but it’s too late. Penn State’s coaches didn’t prepare him for this eventuality, and he puts another seven on the board. IU was then able to drive down the field, get a touchdown and two-point conversion, and send the game to overtime where they’d eventually win.
I first thought of the Florida-Texas A&M game from just a few weeks ago. After Malik Davis’s late fumble, the Aggies got the ball at the Gators’ 48-yard-line with 3:40 left in the game. UF had only one timeout left, and little had suggested that the defense could get a stop at all. I could see wanting to see if they could get a stop, and they did force a 3rd & 1 initially. However after failing to get a stop there, Florida should’ve tried to let A&M score.
After the Aggies converted the 3rd & 1, they purposefully went at a glacial pace to bleed about another 1:50 off the clock in three plays and converted a 3rd & 8 on a simple quick slant. By the time they snapped the ball again, there were just 29 seconds left and they were in comfortable field goal range. What felt inevitable from the start happened: A&M attacked the defense in the way it had all game and kicked a field goal to win. I’d much rather had the UF offense with the game on the line, but oh well.
The issue of scoring or falling down to ice a game reminded me of the 2017 Vanderbilt game. Davis got loose on a 4th & 1 with 1:42 left in the game and UF up 31-24 and ran for a 39-yard touchdown. The correct play would’ve been to fall down before scoring, as the Commodores were out of timeouts. UF could’ve taken three knees and iced the game, but fortunately the ‘Dores went four-and-out and the Gators still won.
Football is a funny game sometimes, and everything that happens comes around again. It’s why we love it so much.