For SC State, Difference Between 1-2 And 3-0 Is Excruciatingly Thin
For SC State, Difference Between 1-2 And 3-0 Is Excruciatingly Thin
South Carolina State is 1-2 -- but could easily be a 3-0 football team.
We've all heard, replayed, and otherwise obsessed over Al Pacino's -- er, um, Tony D'Amato's -- "Inches" speech from the film "Any Given Sunday" by now.
"I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it," he says. "One half-second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it."
Actually, you know what, this is a great excuse to just go ahead and watch one of the all-time great movie scenes again:
For South Carolina State, the difference between 3-0 and 1-2 is excruciatingly thin. Out of the more than 300 plays that the Bulldogs have been a part of, a handful have prevented them from being undefeated when NC A&T comes to town on Saturday.
Don't believe me? Just watch.
Trailing Southern by one score to open the season, SC State gives up a pop screen for a 33-yard gain -- setting up the Jaguars with first and goal from the 6. Linebacker Darius Leonard gets caught between playing the run and realizing it's a screen, and the Bulldogs' aggressiveness is used against them.
One play later, Southern's quarterback freezes the SC State defenders with the play action and strolls in off the naked bootleg for a score.
Driving for the go-ahead touchdown with just over six minutes left, the Bulldogs put the football on the ground while running what seems, for all intents and purposes, to be an ill-fated reverse -- regardless of whether or not the fumble occurs.
Still, the SC State defense played extremely well and kept the Bulldogs in it with a fourth-down stop with 1:51 to go. With the ball back and nearing midfield, SC State's Dewann Ford finds a wide-open Jermaine Baxley, but the pass skips off of his hands and falls harmlessly incomplete.
Last week, the Bulldogs led North Carolina Central for virtually all of the first three quarters and most of the fourth quarter -- and even looking back at the game a second time, it's tough to understand how NC Central left with a win.
The game began to change on a drive that commenced at the start of the fourth quarter, lasted nearly seven minutes, covered 70 yards on 14 plays -- and never really felt threatening until Central was in the end zone.
Four times, the Eagles prolonged the drive with frustrating quarterback runs like this one on fourth and 2 from the SC State 36.
That's maddening enough, but four plays later, NC Central backup quarterback Naiil Ramadan found Jacen Murphy for a 20-yard scoring strike on what sure looked like it was going to be a pick.
"One half a step too late… and you don't quite catch it."
One possession later, a single mental lapse completes the fourth-quarter swing.
There was no NC Central sorcery involved in getting a receiver this wide open down the center of the field. It's not a clear running down (second and 9), and there's no run action in the backfield. Even still, safety Jason Baxter, who has middle-third responsibility in Cover 3, gets caught with his eyes in backfield -- likely anticipating quarterback run -- and tight end Josh McCoy just runs past him unnoticed and uncovered.
If you put a stopwatch to the amount of time it takes Baxter to abandon the middle, realize he's in trouble, and watch as the ball sails over his head, it wouldn't total a full second. Sixty minutes of football swung on two split-second outcomes.
This isn't your average 1-2 football team.
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"I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it," he says. "One half-second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it."
Actually, you know what, this is a great excuse to just go ahead and watch one of the all-time great movie scenes again:
For South Carolina State, the difference between 3-0 and 1-2 is excruciatingly thin. Out of the more than 300 plays that the Bulldogs have been a part of, a handful have prevented them from being undefeated when NC A&T comes to town on Saturday.
Don't believe me? Just watch.
Southern 14, SC State 8 (Sept. 3)
Trailing Southern by one score to open the season, SC State gives up a pop screen for a 33-yard gain -- setting up the Jaguars with first and goal from the 6. Linebacker Darius Leonard gets caught between playing the run and realizing it's a screen, and the Bulldogs' aggressiveness is used against them.
One play later, Southern's quarterback freezes the SC State defenders with the play action and strolls in off the naked bootleg for a score.
Driving for the go-ahead touchdown with just over six minutes left, the Bulldogs put the football on the ground while running what seems, for all intents and purposes, to be an ill-fated reverse -- regardless of whether or not the fumble occurs.
Still, the SC State defense played extremely well and kept the Bulldogs in it with a fourth-down stop with 1:51 to go. With the ball back and nearing midfield, SC State's Dewann Ford finds a wide-open Jermaine Baxley, but the pass skips off of his hands and falls harmlessly incomplete.
NC Central 33, SC State 28 (Sept. 21)
Last week, the Bulldogs led North Carolina Central for virtually all of the first three quarters and most of the fourth quarter -- and even looking back at the game a second time, it's tough to understand how NC Central left with a win.
The game began to change on a drive that commenced at the start of the fourth quarter, lasted nearly seven minutes, covered 70 yards on 14 plays -- and never really felt threatening until Central was in the end zone.
Four times, the Eagles prolonged the drive with frustrating quarterback runs like this one on fourth and 2 from the SC State 36.
That's maddening enough, but four plays later, NC Central backup quarterback Naiil Ramadan found Jacen Murphy for a 20-yard scoring strike on what sure looked like it was going to be a pick.
"One half a step too late… and you don't quite catch it."
One possession later, a single mental lapse completes the fourth-quarter swing.
There was no NC Central sorcery involved in getting a receiver this wide open down the center of the field. It's not a clear running down (second and 9), and there's no run action in the backfield. Even still, safety Jason Baxter, who has middle-third responsibility in Cover 3, gets caught with his eyes in backfield -- likely anticipating quarterback run -- and tight end Josh McCoy just runs past him unnoticed and uncovered.
If you put a stopwatch to the amount of time it takes Baxter to abandon the middle, realize he's in trouble, and watch as the ball sails over his head, it wouldn't total a full second. Sixty minutes of football swung on two split-second outcomes.
This isn't your average 1-2 football team.
How to Watch NC A&T State vs S.C. State
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