FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — This game got away from South Carolina in a hurry.

The season is on the verge of doing the same.

The Gamecocks took the lead on the first play of the second half, but Arkansas responded with 23 unanswered points in a 33-16 victory before 68,865 fans on a blustery Saturday afternoon at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“They just thoroughly beat us,” USC coach Steve Spurrier said. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”

If the Gamecocks (6-4, 3-4 SEC) are to prove this really is a “new” Carolina, they’re going to have to find a win against either the No. 1 team in the country, Florida, or their chief rival, Clemson.

In short, they have to figure out a way — any way — to stave off a four-game losing streak to end the regular season.

As it stands right now — after back-to-back losses at Tennessee and here — things seem a little too familiar for a team that’s fallen apart late each of the past two seasons.

“All we want to do is be a different team,” senior center Garrett Anderson said. “This is the stuff we’ve been doing for years.”

The microcosm of finishing seasons is finishing games.

“They finished the game,” defensive tackle Ladi Ajiboye said. “We didn’t.”

Stephen Garcia hit Alshon Jeffery for an 80-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half. Garcia, who ended up with a career-high 327 passing yards, made a terrific play fake. Jeffery, who had 116 yards on five catches, did a nice job of getting open and outrunning defenders.

The hold on the extra point was botched — perhaps something of an omen of what was to come.

“Anytime we drop an extra point,” Spurrier said, referencing the blocked PAT at Georgia, “it seems like nothing good happens after that.”

The 16-10 lead was swallowed up quickly as Ryan Mallett and Arkansas (5-4, 2-4) engineered an 11-play, 73-yard drive capped by Mallett’s 1-yard sneak.

Still, South Carolina was only down a point. And, including the ensuing drive, the Gamecocks did periodically move the ball.

Garcia hit Jason Barnes to convert a third-and-11 in USC’s own end of the field. Facing third-and-6 near midfield, Garcia found Weslye Saunders for a 26-yard gain to the Arkansas 25.

On the next play, South Carolina went to its go-to play — the jumpball to Jeffery.

He was in one-on-one coverage, but Razorbacks safety Jerell Norton responded by outleaping Jeffery for the interception in the end zone.

“You think the worst thing that’s going to happen is an incompletion,” Spurrier said.

Added Garcia: “That interception just turned the game around.”

From there, Arkansas put the pedal down. The Razorbacks started mixing the run and pass, and the injury-depleted Gamecocks started to wear down.

A seven-play, 80-yard drive ending with Broderick Green’s first of two rushing touchdowns put Arkansas up 24-16.

Mallett finished the day 23 of 27 for 329 yards and the short rushing score.

“We knew they couldn’t slow us down if we got going,” Mallett said. “That wound up being true.”

The missed extra point an example, so many things went disastrously wrong for the Gamecocks throughout the day:

n They ran six plays inside the 8-yard line on their first scoring drive before eventually settling for a short field goal.

n Right before the half, they had second-and-1 just inside Arkansas territory, but wound up having to punt. With the help of some poor tackling, Hogs tight end D.J. Williams turned a short gain into a 69-yard play that set up a game-tying field goal just before the half.

n Then there was the snap from Garrett Anderson that went well over Garcia’s head. Garcia tried to track the loose ball down, but it eventually wound up in the end zone for a safety.

That put Arkansas up 26-16. The Hogs had taken every bit of USC’s momentum by then.

With the Gamecocks out of sorts both offensively and defensively, Arkansas punched another one in late. On the scoreboard, the winning margin was wider than even two years ago, when Darren McFadden and Felix Jones ran wild.

“We had a decent showing in the first half,” Anderson said, “and then we stopped playing in the second half.”

That statement sums up Saturday. If something doesn’t change, it might again describe the season for South Carolina.

 

You must be logged in to comment.