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Wes Mitchell
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** Ultimately these close SEC football games usually come down to a handful of plays and unfortunately for South Carolina, they have not executed and made the big plays when needed against the better teams on their schedule. That was the case again Saturday and the combination of the early interception, dropped passes, the fumble, and the dropped potential interception in the end zone were more than enough for Texas A&M to leave Columbia with a win. An incredible time of possession difference (41:29-18:31) was also a huge factor. When there's very little margin for error - which is just a fact of life for Carolina right now - and you're playing against good competition, every mistake is magnified.
** Let's get right down to the play of Jake Bentley as it's clearly the most polarizing topic on the board this week. In my review of the game, I broke down each of Bentley's throws and tried to classify them into several categories, regardless of the actual outcome of the play in some instances.
In doing so, I charted Bentley as being "accurate" on 18 of his throws with 7 more that I deemed as "catchable" (ie not perfect, but the ball was there). So I had 25 of his 40 throws (I counted 2 point conversions and plays negated by penalty too) as being accurate or catchable. He had 8 passes, including the interception, that I counted as being "off." Six of his incompletions were either throwaways or passes in which he was hit while throwing and two completed "passes" were really handoffs to Deebo Samuel on the sweep. By my count, South Carolina had five drops in the game, four of which would have gone for big, potentially game-changing plays.
The problem, in my view, with some of the opinions towards Bentley is that some are taking a very black and white approach when, like most things in life, there's plenty of gray area in between. He certainly missed some throws early in the Texas A&M game, with his most egregious error, being the terrible throw on the interception, especially considering it was in the end zone. But he also was a huge part of the team's comeback in the second half and as indicated above made more than enough strong throws for Carolina to go win the game.
Bentley has clearly not played like an elite quarterback this season, and that's certainly fair to say, but I don't think he's earned some of the vitriol aimed his direction either and certainly not the boos he endured Saturday. Whether he ultimately becomes the quarterback to take Carolina to new heights or not, he's still the quarterback that took over a 3-9 team that was 2-4 to start the 2016 season and helped it get to a bowl game and six wins that year and nine wins the next.
It's fair to say that his play this year hasn't shown the progression that many, myself included, expected from him as a junior. But it's also worth pointing out that booing him in his own stadium accomplishes literally nothing and if anything potentially hinders his ability on subsequent downs while also possibly turning off the very recruits in the stadium that the program needs to win more games.
To be clear, fans paid for their tickets and I get that anyone has the right to boo if they want, but I also can't see any scenario where it actually helps the program those fans are clearly invested in. Whether Bentley has played well or not - and again, I think he's been solid but not great this year - he still busts his tail for the program every day and hope we can have an honest conversation about him without some of the personal attacks that are rampant on social media.
*** For more on this, make sure you check out Will Helm's excellent post with notes from Pro Football Focus here ***
** Defensively, the plan was clearly to try and force Kellen Mond to beat Carolina through the air by stopping the run and the Carolina front responded with its best game of the season in that aspect and eliminated many of the busts that led to huge explosive plays against Missouri. I don't know how much it helped that A&M isn't an uptempo team, but all three levels of the defense seemed to fill their gaps better and were on the same page for the most part. Carolina had an extra defender in the box on almost every play that wasn't a clear passing down and routinely rushed five which can be tricky against Mond but they were able to keep him contained for the most part. That clearly leaves the defense susceptible on the back end, but there's always going to be a give and take there. Strong red zone defense and forcing field goals was clearly a key to staying in the ball game.
** Sophomore linebacker Sherrod Greene had easily the best game of his career. I remember sources within the program absolutely raving about Greene for his camp performance in Columbia prior to his senior season, so I've always had high expectations for him knowing how high the staff was on him. Needless to say, Greene had a slow start to the season and just didn't look comfortable through the first five games.
I don't know what changed Saturday, but he played fast, got off blocks, flowed to the football and finished tackles. He looked like the guy we saw on film in high school when he was a tackling machine. He also threw in a pass breakup for good measure and looked as fast as I've seen him this season. Greene was around the football all game. If you're looking for one positive from the game from a player development point, then Greene would be it for me. This team is clearly going to need him to continue to play well during the second half of the season.
** Freshman cornerback Jaycee Horn continues to look like the best player on defense to me. Horn technically got the start in the game at one of the cornerback positions and was playing there when Carolina was in its base package and shifting inside to nickelback in that package. Carolina had him shifted over into the box at times to help in run support as well as the plan was clearly to stop the run first.
** Looking ahead, to after the bye week, South Carolina has a very winnable home game against Tennessee and a toss up type game at Ole Miss followed by a trip to Florida that looks much tougher than it once did. With likely wins over Chattanooga and a rescheduled opponent in the final week, those three games will likely determine if Carolina is a bowl team and what level of bowl they'll be heading to. We'll have plenty more on the game this weekend in my Tale of the tape and on the big picture of what South Carolina is going to have to do to finish strong in the second half of the season.
ALSO SEE: Shilo Sanders gives South Carolina official visit rave reviews
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