South Carolina Football: Quick hits after Gamecock loss to Georgia

Let’s cut to the chase. Shane Beamer’s South Carolina football squad looked to be on the fast track to upsetting the #1-ranked, two-time defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs. It would have been Georgia’s first loss at home since 2019 when they lost to the Gamecocks. It was not meant to be, though.

The first half of the game was all Gamecocks. The garnet and black visitors got on the scoreboard first with a 17-yard catch and run from Juice Wells that culminated the 8/8 passing performance from Spencer Rattler on the drive. Unfortunately, Wells was lost for the game on the play with what Beamer called “a broken bone” in his foot.

The Gamecock defense played well during the rainy first half, especially defensive lineman TJ Sanders. CBS analyst Brian Jones said his play was “sweeter than church music” as big #90 had six tackles and was in on a sack, two tackles for loss, 3rd-down stuff, 3rd-down tackle in space that forced a Georgia field goal (a miss), and 3rd-down pass break up.

The Gamecock offense didn’t get a whole lot going on the ground, but Rattler had several nice scrambling efforts and was nearly flawless passing the football in the first half (16-18), leading to the 14-3 lead at the intermission. DK Joyner had the Gamecocks’ second touchdown on a wildcat carry at the goalline, meaning he will be making another charitable donation soon.

The second half did not start nearly as nicely as the first half ended. Georgia running back Daijun Edwards scored in short order to make the score 14-10, and the Gamecocks had an ugly 3-and-out on the ensuing drive as the Georgia Bulldogs began to own the line of scrimmage.

The UGA edge up front continued the rest of the half. A Dillon Bell touchdown run gave UGA the lead, and the South Carolina offense couldn’t get much going the rest of the way.

The second half looked much more like the North Carolina game than Gamecock fans would have liked as Rattler was running for his life on seemingly every dropback. Unforced errors that weren’t present in the first half also came up to bite the ‘Cocks in the second half. Penalties, drops, poor routes from receivers, and bad pass blocking doomed any chance of USC hanging on to win.

Georgia dominated the trenches in the second half on both sides of the football, and as it so often is in the SEC, the Bulldogs’ owning the line of scrimmage was the difference. The Georgia offensive line protected Carson Beck in the second half and provided plenty of running lanes for the ‘Dawgs’ stable of backs, while the defensive line stymied the Carolina run game and made life impossible for Rattler as the Gamecocks didn’t score at all in the second half.

21-straight points from Georgia after the halftime break was more than enough as Kirby Smart’s team held on for the victory over a South Carolina football team that provided the Dawgs’ first test of the year.

A more in-depth dive into the game will be released on Sunday.

The South Carolina football team will return home next week to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Williams-Brice Stadium for a 7:30 kickoff on the SECNetwork and ESPN App.