If you are a South Carolina fan, it seems like this has been the story of the season.

The Gamecocks came close to upsetting No. 5 Auburn on the road Saturday night, but once again defensive issues kept Steve Spurrier’s team from its biggest win of the season.

This isn’t a huge surprise, however. It was clear early on in 2014 that South Carolina’s defense wouldn’t be nearly as good as last season when the Texas A&M Aggies throttled the Gamecocks 52-28 in the season opener.

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And that’s understandable considering the amount of talent the Gamecocks lost from last year’s group, especially along the defensive line — first-team All-Americans Jadeveon Clowney and Kelcy Quarles as well as defensive end Chaz Sutton. Losses in the secondary, including two starting defensive backs from 2013, have also contributed to the team’s struggles.

Fresh off a bye week and a dominating win against Furman, the Gamecocks knew they had a tough challenge ahead of them in stopping Auburn’s high-powered offense. The game quickly turned into an offensive shootout with the teams tied at 21 points apiece at halftime and the Tigers eventually outlasted the Gamecocks by a score of 42-35.

While the offense had its most impressive outing of the season, defensively it was a game to forget. Auburn scored a touchdown on six of its eight drives in the game and went a perfect 4-for-4 in the red zone. The Tigers turned the ball over only one time and racked up 551 total yards of offense, their third game this season of 500 or more yards of offense.

But even more than the yardage allowed, it’s was the look of the defense. Very rarely did the Gamecocks offer little — if any — resistance to Auburn’s offense. There was never any doubt in which group won the line of scrimmage and often times, Auburn’s players gained significant yardage before they were even touched by a South Carolina defender, most notably on several of Nick Marshall’s runs and Ricardo Louis’ 75-yard touchdown run.

“Obviously the coaches are disappointed. They’re trying as hard as they can to put the guys in position,” Spurrier said. “We’re out of position a lot. We get blocked a lot and we don’t tackle very well. When all three of those things happen, the other team goes up and down the field quite a bit.”

After Saturday’s performance, the Gamecocks rank 13th in the SEC in total yards allowed (437.5 ypg) and are tied for last in scoring defense (32.8 ppg). Aside from those gaudy statistics, South Carolina’s front seven has also failed to get much pressure at all this season, recording only eight sacks (tied for 118th nationally).

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Because of the poor numbers, defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward has received the bulk of the backlash from South Carolina fans, but Spurrier remains confident in Ward and other defensive coaches on staff.

“Certainly, certainly,” Spurrier said about if he’s confident in his defensive coaches. “They were here for our first 11-win season and Lorenzo [Ward] has been the coordinator for the last two seasons.”

“We’re coaching very similarly to what we used to do. We do have a lot of young, different players out there. It is a different defense from last year,” he added. “We thought we would be a little bit better than what we have been so far, but it hasn’t worked out that way.”

Fortunately for Spurrier and the Gamecocks, they’ll get an opportunity to build their confidence with a struggling Tennessee offense visiting Williams-Brice Stadium this weekend.

“We’re just a struggling bunch of guys on defense right now, and we know that. We have to get something positive to hang our hats on.”