South Carolina practiced a read option all week before it hosted LSU. It understood the front seven wanted to come downhill fast, so the Gamecocks designed a play determined by the movement of the defensive end.
They called it late in the second quarter, and quarterback LaNorris Sellers kept the ball when Bradyn Swinson pursued a receiver who motioned across the formation. South Carolina's offensive line opened the middle of the field as the defense flowed toward the motion, and Sellers cut past safety Sage Ryan.
"All I had to do was put a move on him," Sellers said. "Once I put a move on him, I looked at the jumbotron to see who was behind me and whether or not it was a touchdown."
The 75-yarder was the longest touchdown run by a quarterback in South Carolina history, and too reminiscent for LSU of a 67-yard touchdown by Nicholls running back Colin Guggenheim the week before.
A trend has now emerged through three games. LSU's defense has caused more negative plays than it did last year. But it has given up too many explosive ones, a looming problem when it faces better offenses, starting next month with Ole Miss.
"We want to be better defensively and a lot of this -- all of this -- that you saw today on both sides of the ball, all of it is correctable," LSU coach Brian Kelly said. "All of it can be coached, and all of it can be executed."
LSU did some good things defensively in its 36-33 comeback win at South Carolina. The Gamecocks were 3 of 12 on third down -- after Southern Cal was 3 of 9 -- and the Tigers forced three turnovers. They recorded nine tackles for loss. There were five sacks, three from Swinson. Their havoc rate was 26%, which is what defensive coordinator Blake Baker wants.
But LSU continued to give up explosive plays, especially on the ground. South Carolina gained 243 yards and scored four touchdowns on 41 carries, an average of 5.9 yards per rush. The Gamecocks had averaged 2.89 yards per carry through their first two games.
LSU has now allowed a 100-yard rusher in back-to-back weeks. Guggenheim finished with 145 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries. Then, Raheim Sanders rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns, including a 66-yarder on third and short to retake the lead in the fourth quarter. Sellers added 88 yards and two scores.
Through three games, LSU has allowed 42 plays over 10 yards, which ranks 98th in the country and second-to-last in the Southeastern Conference. While most of those have been passes, LSU is the only team in the SEC that has given up three runs of 30-plus yards. Half the league hasn't allowed one yet.
LSU tried to make adjustments before it played South Carolina by switching to a 4-3 front that put linebackers Harold Perkins, Whit Weeks and Greg Penn on the field at the same time. Defensive tackle Paris Shand moved inside after the loss of Jacobian Guillory. Major Burns returned to safety, and freshman safety Dashawn Spears made his first start.
But South Carolina had a lot of success before Sellers suffered an ankle injury that limited him to three plays in the second half. When Sellers was healthy, the Gamecocks rushed for 153 yards while averaging 7 yards per carry. Their offensive line opened wide rush lanes, and they consistently shed tackles.
LSU missed a season-high 12 tackles, according to Pro Football Focus. Defensive end Sai'vion Jones had three, and Perkins missed two. Perkins, whose position continues to evolve, has a team-high four missed tackles this season.
"We want to fit plays better," Kelly said of the linebackers. "When there's long runs, there's things that we need to clean up, right? But they're great players. They did a lot of good things today. Like I told our staff, I love the work ethic. I love the way they come to work and prepare. We just gotta get cleaner."
Kelly did not think Sellers' injury changed the complexion of the game, but LSU seemed to benefit from his absence. After not punting in the first half, South Carolina struggled to maintain drives with Robby Ashford at quarterback. Kelly said the difference was LSU created predictable third downs. It also helped that South Carolina committed 13 penalties for 123 yards, including two that negated pick-sixes.
But to its credit, LSU made crucial stops in the second half. It forced three three-and-outs, and when the offense turned the ball over twice in the fourth quarter, the defense only allowed three points. It held South Carolina to a field goal after a fumbled snap deep in LSU territory, then forced a punt after Garrett Nussmeier threw a red zone interception.
"We showed that resolve defensively, and then we started to play some complimentary football where we get a stop on defense, and then we score on offense," Kelly said. "We hadn't done that the first couple of weeks. There's improvement there."
While all of LSU's defensive limitations could take more than one year to fix, it has to limit the explosive plays. Ole Miss leads the country with 81 plays of 10-plus yards, and Arkansas is not far behind with 76. Alabama has 11 plays over 30 yards and seven over 40, ranking in the top 10 nationally in both categories.
The good news for LSU is it has some time to work on the issues with UCLA, South Alabama and then an open date over the next three weeks. The schedule should give the Tigers some time to clean up their problems before they play the offenses that could exploit their weaknesses.
"Everything that we did today, we have to do better coaching it and we have to do a better job executing it, and we're capable of doing it," Kelly said. "We have to be better, and we will be."