Saturday, October 10, 2009

USC's defense struggles

Seth Emerson, Gamecocks live blogs 


Apparently, USC’s defense is really great - which it’s been most of the time - or pretty bad - which it’s been so far today.

Kentucky takes the lead again, with Mike Hartline and Randall Cobb hooking up on a couple big passes.

The big play was a  55-yard catch and run by Cobb, who caught the pass in the flat, then cut through a hole and was off.

A few plays later, after a timeout, Hartline hit Cobb on an underneath route, a 10-yard touchdown play.

Give Kentucky this: They’re getting the ball to their best athlete, Cobb, precisely what Ole Miss did
NOT do two weeks ago with Dexter McCluster. Cobb has caught a couple passes, and has rushed the ball four times, twice on end-arounds.

Combine that with what’s been a steady, if not effective, running game, and USC’s defense has been on its heels. The Gamecocks had better be careful here. The offense could stand to have a long drive to give Ellis Johnson and co. a chance to regroup.

By the way, Chris Culliver isn’t even out there for the ensuing kickoff, despite his last two long returns. Bryce Sherman is the deep man.

Maybe USC figured that Kentucky wouldn’t even bother kicking to him, so they elected to keep Culliver with the defensive players as the coaches scream at them.

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