Hogs or Chickens? Which will survive or get butchered this weekend? I can see this game going either way, but Columbia is a tough place to play. So I think the win will go to Chickens. If Hogs sit back in defense as they have been playing, Bentley will carve them up like a Christmas Ham even though he don’t have Deebo to throw to. Hogs will need to be able to run the ball well and control the clock then score!!!
Go Hogs beat the Cocks!!!
They have injured starting and backup lineman, so our boys hopefully can get a good rush on their QB. If we can do that, then I give the advantage to Razorbacks.
We’ll find out much more this Saturday when the Hogs go on the road in the SEC for their first true road game at South Carolina.
By no means are the Game Cocks a SEC or for that matter a NCAA powerhouse this season or historically. Certainly, they like most SEC programs have a passionate fan base that wants to believe in their team, but most years are left out of the SEC Championship Game and in a less than attractive Bowl.
They like Arkansas joined the SEC in 1998 and in that time have won the SEC East 1 season only to lose in the Championship game.during their years in the SEC they have 11 seasons that they have finished the season with a record above .500.
Historically, South Carolina has won only 1 Conference Championship in 1969 while a member of the ACC.
Their football program has produced only 4 consensus All Americans and the 1 Heisman Trophy winner, George Rogers.
So, for anyone to say or think that this is the type of football program that strikes fear in opponents coming into their home stadium just doesn’t know the history of this long underachieving program.
They brought in highly successful coaches such as Holtz and Spurrier and neither were able to build a sustainable winning culture during their time leading the Game Cocks.
Now, to this years matchup. If we can come out and run the ball effectively enough to set up our play action passing game while keeping Austin upright and hit a couple of big plays then we should have an opportunity to pull this one out.
We do need to get a lot more aggressive from a defensive standpoint. If we don’t utilize multiple blitz packages and play up tighter on their wide receivers then this game could end up being another high scoring affair like the A&M game and our chances will get a bit more dicey to get the win.
A few things we can’t allow to happen is to give up a kick or punt return for a TD or have multiple turnovers resulting in TD’s or leading to a very short field for their offense. Also, we need to wrap up when tackling and not just hit the guy thinking he will go down.
This game is critical for both teams, especially for our Hogs due our next two games at Alabama ( Loss ) and hosting Auburn ( probable loss ) the following week.
Once we get past those two games the remaining schedule isn’t too tough especially if we prove that we can go on the road and win a game against an average SEC opponent. If after this weekend we find that we can’t get this done then I’m afraid we are looking at a very disappointing season.
I hope they can get it done.
Go Hogs!
Good post. Agree with practically everything, except both schools joined in the SEC in 1992, not 1998.
I’m 100% behind CBB and this team, having said that I have to believe we will have to win every game with our offense if we don’t find a way to pressure the Qb. I find it difficult to accept that up until last game we could not get receivers open and on the other hand we can’t cover the opposing receivers and that’s what will determine who wins this game. Read the article that they have hinted about bringing up the D to get pressure on the QB, I had rather be shouting it from the roof top than hinting about rushing the passer. I will say we are improving but I’m impatient unfortunately about getting more agressive on D which leads to frustration on my part, I’m sure things will ramp up on D has the season progresses. Hogs beat the Chickens with a hint of pressure. WPS
Some Crown Royal on ice is going to help me get through this game. Man we need this victory and believe we have a chance mainly because their star wide out is out. Thus I like our chances if we get into high scoring affair with them. We’re just going to have to accept that we will get everyone’s best effort left on our schedule including LSU and Mizzou. Maybe the HA and TawTam prediction group at 7-5 could be best the Hogs can get this season which is still a winning record and keeps CBB looking forward to trying to better that record next season. Gamecocks scored 17 points against aTm; Hogs put up 43. aTm scored 43 points against Hogs in regulation (17 on three busted plays, 26 rest of game). But only managed 24 pts against SC who did not give up busted plays. Where is middle ground?
This is a toss-up game but go ahead and say Hogs can win somewhere in the neighborhood of 34-31 game if they can keep SC from having the ball with less than 2 minutes left in the game. Wps!
Core5,
I too will be pulling hard for our Hogs this Saturday and hope they can come away with a much needed win before playing Bama and War Eagle in the next consecutive weeks.
I hope that our O-Line can block and protect enough to allow us to have success, but the one thing I see with your prediction of us scoring 34 points means one of two things, we either score five TD’s and miss one extra point or we score four TD’s making all extra points while also attempting and making 2 field goals which it doesn’t appear Coach B has much confidence in even trying. He had a couple of opportunities last weekend to give his kickers a chance to kick a field goal during a live game at home that we were in no real jeapordy of losing and he didn’t do it, which I believe was a mistake because eventually we are going to need to attempt and make some field goals.
Also, the defense has to get more aggressive in the pass rush and close the cushion on the corners or they will put points on the board and we will simply have to outscore them on their home turf, I don’t particularly like that scenario.
Lastly, we have to be disciplined in kick coverage as well as knowing wether or not to try to return a kick or take the touchback and start at the 25 yard line.
I’m anixiously optimistic if they don’t make too many mental errors that we could win this very winnable game.
Go Hogs!
Very good catch there Dfarris! Lol I thought about that generous score and thinking maybe we miss on a 2pt conversion. We cannot try to get into a fg battle, clearly…So it is going to take best effort to score TDs every time Hogs reach the red zone. For some reason I fear these Gamecocks as though they’re SEC powerhouse (probably because of Spurrier being there; DE Clowney there two or three years ago) so a win in the pocket against them will we make me feel better if we cannot keep game close against the Tide the week after.
This is close game right here to enjoy for awhile I think.