The South Carolina football team fell short to the No. 14 Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday afternoon, 26-7. The Gamecocks are now 3-4 for the season and 1-4 in the SEC.
On Oklahoma’s opening drive, freshman running back Tory Blaylock ran for an 18-yard touchdown to give the Sooners a beginning lead.
Attempting to answer back, South Carolina drove downfield fueled by a 36-yard rush by graduate running back Rahsul Faison, but the Gamecocks were stopped short of the goal line leading to a turnover on downs. Head coach Shane Beamer spoke about the play calling towards the end of the play.
“I knew I was going to go for it on fourth-down regardless. One, (I) wanted a touchdown,” Beamer said. “We had a nice drive going, and I wanted to make a statement about that.”
After a scoreless rest of the first quarter, Oklahoma drove 62 yards downfield through 10 plays ending with a 10-yard rushing touchdown by sophomore running back Xavier Robinson with 9:21 remaining in the first half.
After the South Carolina defense forced a three-and-out, redshirt sophomore quarterback LaNorris Sellers found junior wide receiver Nyck Harbor in the endzone for a touchdown with 1:43 left in the second-quarter.
Heading into the second-half with a 14-7 score, both teams went scoreless on their second-half opening drives. Sellers talked about the struggle on the offensive side of the ball.
“We just haven't been consistent, we get stuff going, we are driving the ball,” Sellers said. “We (have) really just got to finish.”
With 6:01 minutes left in the third quarter, Oklahoma was able to get back on the board with a 55-yard field goal by redshirt junior kicker Tate Sandell to extend their lead by three. As the Sooner defense forced the Gamecocks to punt at 4:06 in the third quarter, redshirt freshman punter Mason Love was not able to execute the fake-punt leading to an interception by Oklahoma redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Taylor Wein.
The Sooners later extended their lead to 24-7 with a 20-yard touchdown pass from redshirt junior quarterback John Mateer to redshirt junior wide receiver Isaiah Sategna lll. Senior defensive back DQ Smith talked about the defense's communication in Saturday’s game.
“It's a team thing, we all have to be on the same page defensively,” Smith said. “We (weren’t) too bad at it, but we definitely could be better as a team.”
Both teams remained scoreless in the beginning of the fourth-quarter, which was snapped when redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Markus Strong sacked Sellers in the South Carolina endzone, resulting in a safety.
Oklahoma penalties slide past the Gamecocks
Oklahoma finished the game with 10 penalties for 98 yards, yet South Carolina could not capitalize on Oklahoma's errors.
In the second quarter, the Gamecocks were in the redzone and both of the defensive players covering Sellers' target were called for back-to-back pass interference. The first penalty brought South Carolina from the Oklahoma 14-yard line to the two-yard line. The second call brought them to the Oklahoma one yard line. South Carolina was not able to score on the first three attempts.
Beamer talked about the inconsistencies he's seen in all three phases from his team.
“We are not playing up to our potential right now,” Beamer said. “I am not getting the most out of this team right now offensively, defensively and special teams.”
Offensive struggles shine through loss
South Carolina finished Saturday's game with 224 total yards, 170 passing and 54 rushing. When converting third-downs, the Gamecocks were 3-15. Beamer spoke about the struggle of converting on third-downs.
“You have got to be able to sustain drives and stay on that field, and we weren’t able to do that and (that's) disappointing too,” Beamer said.
As the Gamecocks had 67 total plays, South Carolina averaged 3.3 yards per play including 8.1 yards per completion and 1.6 yards per rushing attempt.
South Carolina cleans up high-penalty numbers
Despite the Gamecock loss, South Carolina was able to clean up its penalties, an issue the team struggled with through last Saturday’s game against LSU. Against LSU, South Carolina had a total of 13 penalties for 65 yards. That was just one penalty shy of its season high against Missouri, 14 penalties. Though against Oklahoma, the Gamecocks had only 4 penalties for 35 yards.
“I feel like we are a disciplined team, and it hasn’t been showing up with penalties in games,” Beamer said.
Beamer spoke about how the change of voice in the offensive line room contributed to the improvement after former run game coordinator and tight ends coach Shawn Elliot took over for the dismissed Lonnie Teasley this weekend.
“Certainly we had a different voice in the offensive line room because, let’s face it, a lot of our penalties have been pre-snap penalties, " said Beamer. “I thought those offensive lineman did a nice job today of just being poised and relaxed in there.”
What’s next?
The South Carolina Gamecocks will play the No. 6 Alabama Crimson Tide on Oct. 25 at Williams-Brice Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. and will be streamed on ABC.