South Carolina Gamecocks wide receiver Bruce Ellington (23), left, and South Carolina Gamecocks defensive end Jadeveon Clowney (7) after last year's game against Georgia.
Missouri’s Sheldon Richardson made headlines last month when called Georgia’s offense “old man football.”
The Bulldogs responded with five offensive touchdowns and 355 yards in a 41-20 victory over the Tigers.
After studying UGA this week, South Carolina defensive line coach Brad Lawing assessed the Bulldogs a little bit differently than Richardson.
“That’s what they run, but they run old man football really, really good,” Lawing said. “That offense is going to be as good an offense as we play this whole season.”
He makes a good point.
No. 5 Georgia (5-0, 3-0 SEC) enters Saturday’s monumental 7 p.m. showdown against the No. 6 Gamecocks (5-0, 3-0) on ESPN with the No. 1 total offense in the SEC. Mark Richt’s bunch is putting up 536 yards per game and has scored 41 points or more in every game this season.
UGA is tops in the league in rushing with 248.8 yards per contest; freshman tailback Todd Gurley leads everyone with 536 yards on the ground.
“It’s a big challenge for our defensive guys, and I’m sure we’re going to be ready,” USC coach Steve Spurrier said. “Georgia can run the ball, they can throw the ball, and they’ve done it very well. Hopefully our defense can play a little bit better than those they’ve been playing against. So that’s what we’ll find out Saturday night, but our guys will be ready to play. They look forward to the challenge.”
The Gamecocks appear to be well equipped to give UGA all it can handle, making this one of the top matchups of the 2012 season.
USC’s defense ranks third in the league in total defense, allowing 288.8 yards per game, and is giving up just 11.2 points per game. The Gamecocks are quite stingy against the run, allowing 77.6 yards per game and just two touchdowns on the ground. Opponents have scored three touchdowns when reaching the red zone 12 times this season.
“Stats don’t really mean a whole lot to me, to us,” USC defensive tackle Byron Jerideau said. “If we line up and we play base defense, we’ll be OK.”
Still, something’s got to give when strength meets strength.
“It’s a big test, but at the same time we’ve got to play our game,” USC cornerback Akeem Auguste said. “We’re not going to fall into anybody’s hands or do anything real different. We’re going to play our game and best versus the best.”
A year ago, the Gamecocks beat the Bulldogs 45-42. And while that seems like a shootout, there were plenty of big plays made by the USC defense.
Sophomore defensive end Jadeveon Clowney helped seal the win late in the fourth quarter when he burst past the offensive line, grabbed scurrying QB Aaron Murray and slung him around to force a fumble. Former lineman Melvin Ingram scooped up the loose ball and walked into the end zone.
This season, USC is leading the SEC with 22 sacks; Clowney is ranked second in the SEC with 5.5 QB takedowns, while the other bookend, Devin Taylor, is another speedy matchup nightmare.
“Hopefully we can do a good job with the combination of slide protection to one of them, chipping a guy on the way out or double-teaming with a tight end and a tackle or whatever, to get the ball off,” Richt said. “We just have to be able to find different ways to keep them a little bit off balance.”
One way of doing that is with a running game. Gurley and fellow freshman rusher Keith Marshall combined for 302 yards and five touchdowns in last week’s 51-44 win over Tennessee.
“As we all know, freshmen running backs can certainly play and can play well, just like Marcus (Lattimore) came in here two years ago,” Spurrier said. “That’s a position you don’t have to have been there for two years and learn the offense and all that kind of stuff. Both those freshmen running backs are very talented kids and they can run with it. We’ve got to make sure they don’t have room to run.
“That Tennessee game, I think two or three of their runs, I don’t know if a Tennessee player touched them. A couple times they just ran right through there.”
USC struggled stopping Kentucky’s ground attack in the first half last week, and blamed it on poor tackling. This week, the Gamecocks will also try to fill gaps better, hoping the Bulldogs’ rushers don’t get past the linemen.
Murray, who has thrown for 1,378 yards and 12 touchdowns with three interceptions, has excelled this year behind a young offensive line that’s allowed seven sacks in five games, but the entire Bulldog offense will face its biggest challenge of the season as well.
“We’re not going to change our mentality because we’re playing Georgia,” USC defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward said. “We’re going to do what we do on defense, and I’m sure Georgia is going to do what they do on offense,” Ward said. “So we’ll see what the end result will be.”