Broken record: South Carolina defense struggles, Gamecocks drop game at Missouri

God bless Randy Moehlman.

Moehlman is the public address announcer for Missouri football and he talked a lot on Saturday. His job is to talk. It shouldn’t take long for him to get over sore vocal cords. What might take longer to recover from is the feeling of deja vu.

At points during Missouri’s 34-12 win over South Carolina (2-5, 1-4 SEC), Moehlman was practically talking over himself trying to belt out Missouri’s first-down chant.

“M-I-Z,” Moehlman belted out to the Faurot Field crowd of 62,621.

“Z-O-U,” they shouted back.

After South Carolina — the nation’s worst passing defense in America — forced Missouri to punt on its first offensive possession, the Gamecocks regressed back to their mean.

Missouri quarterback Brady Cook lofted a 42-yard touchdown to star pass-catcher Luther Burden III.

“M-I-Z,” Moehlman shouted.

Tigers’ tailback Cody Schrader galloped untouched into the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown.

“M-I-Z.”

Cook slipped through the middle of the field, shuffled out of the grasp of South Carolina defensive back Nick Emmanwori and crossed the goal line.

“M-I-Z.”

At one point on a 10-play, 87-yard drive that ended with Cook’s rushing touchdown, the Tigers were mercifully meticulous. In a span of six plays, Missouri notched five first downs: 11 yards, 11 yards, 12 yards, 3 yards, 8 yards, 20 yards.

“M-I-Z.” “M-I-Z.” “M-I-Z.” “M-I-Z.” “M-I-Z.”

Phew.

South Carolina’s defense, much-maligned for most of the season, allowed 16 first downs to Missouri (7-1, 3-1 SEC) … in the first half. The Gamecocks waltzed to the locker room down 24-3.

A team that needed some semblance of positivity after back-to-back losses to Tennessee and Florida came out flat. Outmanned. Undisciplined.

South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler was Mizzou’s personal crash-test dummy. In the first half alone, with right tackle Vershon Lee out with an injury, Rattler was sacked three times and the Gamecocks were limited to -8 rushing yards.

At every moment when momentum hung in the balance for South Carolina’s offense, the Tigers Front-7 would send a blitz and Rattler would quickly be on his backside, probably looking around to make sure all of his extremities were still attached.

The Gamecocks quarterback was not bad, completing 23 of his 40 passes for 217 yards and one interception. But he needed to be perfect.

Rattler needed to be flawless because his top receiver, Xavier Legette, left the game with an upper-body injury in the first half. Because his offensive line is inconsistent. Because the Gamecocks’ special teams beat themselves time after time. Because USC’s defense still hasn’t completely figured things out.

To be fair, defensive coordinator Clayton’s White’s group was much better in the second half. They forced that-once methodically maniacally Missouri offense to bring its punter on the field three times in the final two quarters. That’s progress.

What isn’t progress: Down 18 with just under 11 minutes to play, Rattler had the South Carolina offense three yards from the end zone. The Gamecocks had not been that close to a touchdown since last week, when they were playing in the Columbia 714 miles away. And head coach Shane Beamer decided to kick a field goal.

The Gamecocks would have been down two scores regardless. But a touchdown would have kept them still reasonably in the game. Instead, Mitch Jeter kicked his fourth field goal of the day. South Carolina cut its deficit to 15 and never again threatened.

The only bright spot from Saturday is knowing that the scoreboard actually could have been worse.

Just seconds after the second quarter ended on Saturday, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz was asked about his team’s defensive penalties on third downs.

“We’ve got to get that crap corrected,” he said, “or else it would look a whole lot different up there (on the scoreboard).”

Then, just before he was about to run into the locker room, Drinkwitz needed to say one more thing.

“M-I-Z,” he shouted into the microphone.

Next South Carolina game

Who: USC at Texas A&M

When: Noon Saturday, Oct. 28

Where: Kyle Field in College Station, Texas

TV: ESPN