Trends Of The Game: South Carolina vs. Kentucky

South Carolina's Football team won a 17-14 nail-biter over Kentucky tonight, and showed some good and bad tendencies in the process.

Amongst the old adages in sports lies the phrase 'better to win ugly than lose,' and that's what the South Carolina Gamecocks managed to do on Saturday night against the Kentucky Wildcats. Both sides of the ball, particularly the defense, had some good moments, but some corrections will need to be made if Shane Beamer's squad is going to finish the November sweep by beating Clemson. Here's what we noticed throughout tonight's ball game:

Offense

Spencer Rattler and the offense had a pretty effective first quarter, scoring 10 points and accumulating 125 total yards. However, the second quarter saw this unit only gain eight yards, which simply cannot happen. The only semblance of a run game Carolina had was the designed runs for LaNorris Sellers and Rattler improvising on broken plays. Even more concerning is the need for more time to throw the ball; there's no separation from their receiving targets when they do.

The third quarter of the game was much like the second, where there was no offense to speak of. However, when the team needed it most in the 4th quarter, Rattler and Xavier Legette connected on a scoring drive that went for 74 yards on nine plays to take the lead. The biggest story for the offense was just how much Kentucky's Deone Walker affected that game and constantly created havoc, something Rattler noted in his postgame comments.

Defense

In the first half, the defense deserved all the flowers. Was it perfect? No. However, they held Kentucky to 7 yards in the first 30 minutes of play. In the second quarter, the Wildcats did have more success moving the ball, but Nick Emmanwori and Jalon Kilgore were able to force turnovers to keep Kentucky at a deficit at halftime. They did a better job setting the edge in their 3-3-5 defense than when they switched to the 4-2-5 but still managed to play decent enough.

The story for this defense is still 3rd down conversions, where Kentucky went 4-7 in the first half. The defense did force three turnovers in this game and arguably won the game for the Gamecocks, forcing multiple turnovers for the third week in a row.

While it was a game that may have given fans heart issues once again, Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks still have a chance to make a bowl game by beating their instate rival, Clemson, next Saturday. Tonight, you can celebrate the win; tomorrow, it's back to finding ways to be more efficient on offense and continue with the same momentum for the defense.

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