Rapid Reaction: South Carolina defense dominates Arkansas in blowout

South Carolina’s defense came up with an impressive performance against the Arkansas Razorbacks.

The Gamecocks certainly came to play, and the defense set the tone early with this hard hit. The Razorbacks managed 330 total yards, but the  majority of that total came after the game was well out of hand.

QB Austin Allen and Arkansas had scored more than 40 points in three of four games this season heading into Saturday, but it would be the Gamecocks getting to 40 in this game. Allen finished the game with 84 yards passing, a touchdown, and an interception. Allen was pulled in the second half with freshman QB Cole Kelley finishing the game in the blowout.

South Carolina opened up a huge lead with 17 unanswered points in the third quarter. The defense once again provided the impact with back-to-back defensive touchdowns. The first came courtesy of a pick-six by South Carolina’s Skai Moore. The Razorbacks were driving on the ensuing possession before Dante Sawyer forced a fumble that was returned by T.J. Brunson for a 73-yard touchdown.

The Gamecocks finished off the game in the fourth quarter with their third defensive touchdown of the day and won by a final score of 48-22. This defensive touchdown came off a Kelley interception by Keisean Nixon that was returned 43 yards for the score.

What I liked

• The Gamecocks defense showed up in a big way today. Allen was bottled up all day by the Gamecocks defense, but the Hogs rushing attack was also held in check. Arkansas managed just 85 rushing yards and 3.0 YPC for the afternoon. Allen was held to 84 yards passing, a touchdown, an interception, and 3.5 yards per pass.
• Gamecocks QB Jake Bentley’s contributions. Bentley’s numbers were not eye-popping, but he seemed to come up with a few big plays at just the right moments for South Carolina. Bentley completed 16 of 31 passes for 199 yards and 3 TDs.

What I didn’t like

• Everything about the performance of the Razorbacks. The Hogs looked totally dominated by the Gamecocks on both sides of the ball. The 330 total yards and 22 points do not tell the full story on Arkansas. The Razorbacks offense was ineffective for much of the afternoon while turning the ball over four times with three of those turnovers getting returned for touchdowns. The defense was not much better for the Hogs as they allowed 358 total yards to the Gamecocks. Losing is one thing, but this was an especially poor performance from the Razorbacks under head coach Bret Bielema.

Arkansas will travel to Tuscaloosa next week to take on No. 1 Alabama. The Razorbacks are still looking for their first SEC win of 2017.

South Carolina will travel to Knoxville and take on the Tennessee Volunteers next Saturday.

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.