TJ Sanders showing what he can do for South Carolina up front
South Carolina defensive tackle TJ Sanders already knew how good Georgia was in the trenches. Although he spent all week watching film, he couldn’t find many weaknesses on the offensive line.
“They do a good job of not giving away where the slide is going or if it’s like a run or pass,” Sanders said.
So instead, Sanders just kept things simple.
“I just felt like I had to come out here and play ball to be the most effective,” he said.
[Win a Spencer Rattler-autographed football]
As a result, his strategy worked out. Sanders registered nine tackles and a sack in a 24-14 loss to the Dawgs on Saturday. He had two tackles for loss and a pass breakup, as well.
“I just had the right mindset coming into the game,” Sanders said. “I knew what we were going to be up against. And I just felt like we were going to win. I had to bring my best.”
Right from the start of the game, Sanders was making his presence felt. He was able to squeeze by the offensive line and get into the backfield.
On Georgia’s first drive, he tackled Kendall Milton for a loss of three yards. Two plays later, he blew past the line and sacked Carson Beck for a six-yard loss.
“That man makes plays, man. He does it in practice too,” Debo Williams said. “I just told him to keep coming along and playing like that. I love it.”
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With his help, South Carolina’s defense was able to hold the Dawgs to just a field goal after the offense scored a touchdown to start the game.
“I mean, yeah, it’s definitely a good feeling knowing we can stop them from getting points at all,” Sanders said. “Even if we had to force three, we didn’t give up any two times down there. And I thought that was really good to try to get momentum back for our offense.”
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Georgia only had three drives in the first half, mainly due to how much clock it was eating up. But the Dawgs weren’t able to reach the end zone. The Gamecock defense held them to just three points by halftime.
However, things took a turn for the worse once the second half began. The Dawgs immediately scored on their first two drives while taking a 17-14 lead. They’d miss another field goal before scoring another touchdown to cap off a 21-0 run.
“I feel like a team as good as they are, they’re going to come out — they took a punch in the first half. Just feel like they threw their own punch there in the second half,” Sanders said. “I don’t think it was anything we couldn’t stop. We just couldn’t weather the storm enough.”
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While the Gamecocks couldn’t finish strong, Sanders has confidence in himself while the guys around him to keep progressing defensively.
“(We are a) hard-nosed group,” he said. “I mean, we’ve got some young guys, including myself, who haven’t played a lot. And I just feel like we know what we’re up against tonight, and we know what we’ve got heading on the rest of the season.”
