South Carolina Football: Report card vs. Missouri Tigers

South Carolina Gamecocks. DEFENSIVE LINE. D+. The defensive line has been inconsistent this fall. The Missouri game was one of the bad showings, however. The Gamecocks didn’t sack quarterback Brady Cook and only pressured him four times in the game (two from the linebacker position). Other than a stretch in the 3rd quarter, the run defense was bad as Cody Schrader went for a career-high 159 yards and two touchdowns. Tonka Hemingway was nowhere to be found, and TJ Sanders was the only defensive lineman to make an impact whatsoever..

D+. The first half against Mizzou was a disaster for the Gamecock linebackers, but Debo Williams still made some tackles downfield. He had a good second half and finished with an impressive-looking 14 stops, but the rest of the linebackers did virtually nothing right all afternoon. Stone Blanton came in banged up and struggled mightily. Pup Howard and Bam Martin-Scott weren’t good enough. None of the linebackers were good in coverage. The middle of the field was wide open as it has been all season. Given their own struggles in coverage, it will be interesting to see if any of the Gamecock safeties could move to will linebacker this offseason to help at the position.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. LINEBACKERS

C-. The secondary wasn’t as bad against Missouri as it was against Florida, but they weren’t very good. O’Donnell Fortune and Marcellas Dial got beaten inside too much as they were giving a large cushion to Theo Wease and Mookie Cooper. The alarmingly stubborn safety-at-nickel plan continued, and Jalon Kilgore did a little better than DQ Smith and Nick Emmanwori had done in previous weeks. It still wasn’t a good showing, however. The safeties had a strong tackling day, but they were beaten in pass coverage too much with both Kilgore and Smith getting burned by Luther Burden at separate times. It wasn’t a terrible secondary game, but the lack of effort from a couple in this position group toward the end of the first half dings this grade a little more.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. SECONDARY

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