USC 14 - Mississippi State 27: Thoughts on Loss #1

There's not really a whole lot to say about this one, other than I'm not too good at this whole prognosticating thing. This is a game that I picked us to lose before the season started, and once I let that set in my disappointment abated somewhat. I always have trouble picking against the Gamecocks come game week, especially when the opponent loses to South Alabama the previous week. Even if I can't really say I'm surprised at the loss, I was definitely disheartened to see how badly we got beat in the trenches on offense and how poorly we tackled on the perimeter. The O-line was supposed to be best unit on the team this year considering experience, depth, and talent, but that was certainly not the case last Sunday morning. On defense I can understand some poor tackling given what we witnessed the past two years, but I didn't expect us to let a Mississippi State quarterback not named Dak Prescott set a school single-game QB rushing record. I think the worst thing about the game was the injury to Chaz Elder, who had been one of our better secondary players through 1.5 games. On a positive note we played much better in the 2nd half and outscored the cowbell-ringers 14-3, but the effort was obviously too little, too late. One thing this loss showed was how far we have to go to get back to winning 10+ games a year. Given our youth and current recruiting I'm optimistic about the next few years, 2018 in particular, but we'll need to keep improving this year to keep our current commitments on board. Let's hope this improvement begins in our home opener against a tough East Carolina team.

Watch the game again below: