South Carolina 17, Georgia 6: Columbia Has a Running Back
by Year2 on Sep 11, 2010 3:47 PM EDT
in SEC Football
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PrintOne drive into the game, it looked like Georgia was in serious trouble. South Carolina chewed up more than half of the first quarter on a long, run-heavy drive. The Bulldog defense would stiffen up some, and the Red and Black would never fall behind by more than two scores.
However, South Carolina largely controlled the game with its fantastic freshman running back Marcus Lattimore. He carried it 37 times (!) for 182 yards and chipped in a reception for 16 yards. It's odd to watch Steve Spurrier lean on a running back like that, but it worked.
South Carolina may not be quite in the driver's seat in the East with Florida waking up some, but it has a mighty important tie breaker in its back pocket.
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I can't understand why Lattimore is getting so many carries.
Yes, he’s great. We get it. There’s no reason to kill him. Kenny Miles averaged 5.4 yards per carry last year. How about letting him touch the ball at least once during a game! It’s crazy.
stuff 'bout stuff.
Because you don’t screw up what’s working in a big, big game like that. Lattimore can rest next week when Furman comes to town.
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This.
I believe the fact that we play Furman next week played a large part in giving Lattimore so many carries. This game was too important to risk screwing it up for anything.
Your absolutely right, though, you can’t give Lattimore 37 carries a game and expect him to provide the same results against Florida. We have the depth at tailback to split the carries. Spurrier and the coaches know that. I would be really surprised if we see Marcus get more than 25 carries against Furman.
Dum spiro spero - "While I breathe, I hope"
State motto of South Carolina
by The Feathered Warrior on Sep 11, 2010 6:19 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't see how it would've been messing anything up.
Miles had some problems early last year with fumbles, but I thought he shored that up. Plus, Lattimore had fumbling problems in high school. It’s not like it was way safer handing off to him. When he didn’t fumble, Miles had great production last year. I think he could’ve done almost as well.
In a big game like that, I’m not saying Miles should’ve gotten an even number of carries, but switching backs periodically can actually help get yards. Different backs have their own running style intricacies which can lead to defenders missing tackles, and the backs picking up bigger chunks of yards than if the defense was able to simply key in on what one back is doing.
It worked fine this time, but I wonder if they could’ve won by even more had they really let their offense loose. It wasn’t just Miles. Ace Sanders, their super speedy receiver, got no touches on screen passes, reverses, or anything else. They seem to have given up giving Bryce Sherman, their super speedy running back, any touches in the offense. Gilmore didn’t run his wildcat package. Shaw didn’t come in for any quarterback draws or anything.
It worked. Fine. Great. However, playing that conservatively and predictable could’ve easily lost the game too. Georgia’s defense started to key in on a lot of stuff in the 2nd half, and their offense almost tied it up if not for that fumble on the goal line. I’m just saying, they have a lot of weapons that were sitting on the bench.
stuff 'bout stuff.
by silver82blade on Sep 11, 2010 9:27 PM EDT up reply actions
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