South Carolina football: Arkansas 3-2-1

GamecockCentral breaks down the 44-30 loss at Arkansas.

Three Key Plays

Fourth and 1

Take your pick of a couple of plays. Arkansas scored touchdowns on its first three drives, giving the Razorbacks a big lead and ensuring they could stay with their rushing attack. On the first and third drives, Arkansas faced a fourth and 1. Each time, they kept things simple and let 6-3 242-pound quarterback K.J. Jefferson keep the ball. He powered his way for the first down both times and Arkansas went on to score. It was aggressive, yet simple, play-calling and helped Arkansas take control of the game.

Antwane Wells, Jr. to the end zone

South Carolina had just cut the deficit to 21-9, but it still felt like Arkansas was in control. Negative plays seemed to negate everything the offense did well, and the Gamecocks were facing a third and 17. South Carolina spread out Arkansas with five receivers and the Razorbacks left Wells wide open up the seam Spencer Rattler found him, Wells double-caught the ball, and then raced across the field. He picked up a block from Austin Stogner and went 62 yards for a touchdown. The score made it 21-16. It was the closest South Carolina would get, but it put Arkansas on its heels for the first time in the game. 

Marshawn Lloyd’s fumble

Arkansas answered Wells’ touchdown with a long scoring drive, so South Carolina needed to respond. After a short pass, Rattler checked down to Lloyd in the flat. Lloyd had a little bit of room and tried to break a tackle from Bumper Pool and Latavious Brini. Brini put his shoulder right on the football and popped it loose. Hudson Clark recovered. Arkansas scored on the ensuing possession to make it 35-19 and effectively end the game.

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Two Game Balls

Antwane Wells

Wells had eight catches for 185 yards and a touchdown. Two of his catches went for 60+ yards and he has emerged as one of Spencer Rattler’s favorite targets.  Wells finished just outside the top ten for receiving yards in a game. Through two games he has 15 catches for 244 yards.

Nick Emmanwori

Starting in place of the injured RJ Roderick, Emmanwori looked like a freshman when he made the wrong read and left Warren Thompson wide open in the end zone for a touchdown. But the rest of the game was very impressive. Emmanwori finished with 11 tackles and a quarterback hurry. There were also multiple plays where Emmanwori took on the blocker and blew up the play for someone else to finish. 

Win a framed picture of The Hit (Jadeveon Clowney)

One Burning Question

Is that still the offense?

South Carolina had 411 yards of total offense including 372 yards passing, but the offense continued to be suspect. With some eight or nine defensive players missing time due to injuries, it was clear the Gamecocks would have to outscore the Razorbacks. The offense wasn’t up to the task. 

South Caroling mustered just 40 yards rushing (although it was 91 yards when adjusted for sacks). Rattler was sacked six times and he didn’t seem to trust his protection, scrambling early on other plays. He missed a couple of deep throws to open receivers. It wasn’t just Rattler, though. For example, Lloyd didn’t turn around on a screen pass that could have been a big gain.  Things just seemed a little out of sync for much of the game.

On the bright side, there were big plays and when the Gamecocks spread things out there was room to run. There wasn’t consistency.

Bonus question: Is this going to be another season dominated by poor officiating? Those seasons seem to come in cycles. Saturday’s game had multiple long delays as the officials struggled to figure out a call, there was no explanation on a critical fourth-quarter review, a horrible grounding penalty, and then the embarrassing confusion following the final play of the game when the crew clearly had no idea what had happened and were quietly bailed out by the replay crew. Fortunately, the game wasn’t close so the calls didn’t matter, but it was a really bad day for the zebras.

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