South Carolina scored 24 points off turnovers and rolled up Arkansas, 48-22, Saturday afternoon.
The best news of the Gamecocks’ 17-10 lead at halftime against the Razorbacks is, well, it could be worse.
No, seriously. South Carolina missed a field goal in the second quarter that clanged off the right upright.
Whatever the Hogs did right against Texas A&M and New Mexico State isn’t working in the first half of this one, which is against a team that has struggled the past few weeks.
The Hogs’ offense was bad in the first half.
South Carolina has 223 yards of total offense in the first half, compared to Arkansas’ 103 yards. That’s right. Just 103 yards of total offense in two quarters.
Both teams swapped field goals in the first quarter — yes, the Hogs kicked a field goal with Connor Limpert knocked a 48-yarder through with 6:15 to play in the quarter.
The Gamecocks pushed the lead to 10-3 on the second play of the second quarter when quarterback Jake Bentley found tight end Hayden Hurst wide open in the middle of the field for a 62-yard scoring play.
The Hogs answered with a 75-yard, 12-play drive capped by Austin Allen’s pass to Jordan Jones on a slant from the 5. That tied it with 8:26 to play before halftime.
After that score, Arkansas’ offense effectively disappeared.
South Carolina missed a field goal on it’s next possession, then got the ball back with just over a minute to play before halftime and Bentley moved them downfield with the help of a questionable pass interference call against Kamren Curl.
On the next play after the penalty, Bentley threw to Bryan Edwards, who made the catch by screening Curl out in the back corner of the end zone and the Gamecocks led 17-10 at halftime.
“Heckuva throw, heckuva catch,” was Will Muschamp’s comments on the television broadcast going into halftime. “We’ve gotta make plays on third down. We’ve made more in this game than we’ve made in last two games combined.”
As badly as the Hogs played in the first half, they made it worse in the third quarter as the Gamecocks scored 17 unanswered points to increase their lead to 34-10.
Arkansas didn’t win the fourth quarter, although they scored a couple of times late, but at one point it was 41-10.
Cole Kelley replaced Allen in the fourth quarter, which could be viewed as a life-saving measure as much as anything.
Kelley finished 8-of-13 with an interception and a touchdown for 162 yards.
South Carolina improved to 4-2 overall (2-2 SEC) while the Hogs fell to 2-3 (0-2 SEC).
Arkansas travels to Tuscaloosa next week to face No. 1 Alabama.
