“Yeah, 17 is some really good defense.”

Just another data point in the story that was Georgia’s 2019 offense: ($$):

South Carolina held only one conference opponent under 21 points last year. That was Georgia in a 20-17 double-overtime victory. That was 13 points below the Bulldogs’ season scoring average and stands out as a rare bright spot for the Gamecocks’ defense in 2019.

Before you go all “it was the receivers, dude” on me, here’s what SC’s defensive scoring record in conference was after the Georgia game:

• Florida — 38
• Tennessee — 41
• Vanderbilt — 7
• Texas A&M — 30

And here’s SC’s defensive ypp record in those same games, plus Georgia.

• Georgia — 4.93
• Florida — 5.62
• Tennessee — 7.13
• Vanderbilt — 3.78
• Texas A&M — 6.84

When all you’ve got to hang your hat on is bettering Vanderbilt’s offense, you ain’t got much.

If you’re interested still at this point, here’s the story on Georgia’s offensive conference ypp from the Carolina game on:

• South Carolina — 4.93
• Kentucky — 4.91
• Florida — 5.94
• Missouri — 5.06
• Auburn — 3.92
• Texas A&M — 4.41
• LSU — 4.21

Considering that on the season, the Dawgs averaged 6.08 ypp, that wasn’t pretty.  The ‘Carolina game was something of a low point, considering the level of opposition, but the offense never really recovered from it.  Hopefully, Smart’s made the needed changes to fix that.

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