South Carolina’s 28-14 loss to Georgia featured a largely ineffective offense that left the Gamecocks scoreless for over half of the game.
The most obvious flaw in South Carolina’s offense was the run game.
More than 11 minutes passed before the Gamecocks had any rushing yards of their own. Overall, Georgia ran for more than 10 times the rushing yards of South Carolina.
“There was nothing in the run game,” Muschamp said. “So we felt like we needed to throw the football, which I thought we were effective at times.”
On paper, the passing game certainly seemed impressive. Perry Orth threw for 288 yards, including a 39-yard pass to Deebo Samuel. He completed 72 percent of his passes.
However, these stats failed to translate to tangible success.
The Gamecocks were unable to transform plays to first downs and scoring drives. Both teams averaged about five yards per play. However, South Carolina only accumulated 13 first downs compared to Georgia’s 19. South Carolina was also 2-13 on third down conversions.
Orth pointed to an inability to maintain control of the ball as one reason for the team’s inability to convert. The Gamecocks turned the ball over three times by halftime.
“It’s really confusing, honestly. It has been all year,” Orth said of the offense's struggles. “The play calling has been good. We’ve got players that can make plays. It just hasn’t been clicking, and I’m not sure why.”
Muschamp said that changing the starting lineup to improve the Gamecocks' offense is not out of the question.
“All positions are open; evaluation in those positions has to be more efficient,” he said.
South Carolina did show a few signs of promise offensively. Freshman Rico Dowdle led the team in net rushing yards and scored his first touchdown. With 86 receiving yards, Hurst was five yards short of a career-high.
Orth emphasized that with the return of Bryan Edwards and Deebo Samuel, the offense will begin to improve.
“There were signs today that we struggled, signs that we can be pretty good, but like I said, we just gotta keep working and figure it out, " the redshirt senior said.