USC Thoughts

“We made it harder than it had to be,” USC Senior RB Cory Boyd said walking back to the locker room after the UNC win (from the state paper).

That quote say it all about USC’s inability to put teams away. The Gamecocks have little trouble proving their superiority over lesser opponents. They can put those teams on the ropes as they did Saturday against a vastly inferior UNC squad. But USC cannot deliver a knockout punch. Thus, the final 21-15 score and the heart-thumping finish when USC defenders needed to bat down a ball in the end zone as time expired.

Funny, because there was a time not that long ago when USC would have lost this kind of game. The game-clinching field goal would have clanked off the upright, as happened Saturday, and the last-ditch pass by UNC would have fallen in the hands of a receiver.

So you have to give USC credit for somehow getting over that hump this season. The Gamecocks manage to win despite playing BAD at times. They win ugly. But the important thing is they win.