Takeaways from Kentucky's brutal 35-13 blowout loss at South Carolina

Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats headed to Columbia on Saturday night for a massive showdown against the South Carolina Gamecocks, one that would be a huge win for both teams and their trajectory for the entire season. For Kentucky, it couldn't have started out any better, as they quickly established the run game, scoring within the first three minutes thanks to running back Seth McGowan. South Carolina punched back with their own touchdown, and from there everything changed.

Kentucky took a 10-7 lead into the second quarter, which is when things took a turn for the worst, as the Gamecocks scored a whopping 21-straight points on the Wildcats in just that quarter. Things flipped quickly, as the Wildcats really struggled to find rhythm throughout the game after the quarter. Turnovers really killed what life Kentucky had on offense, and that carried over to the defense, too, as other than the occasional pass-rush, Kentucky's defense was unable to contain quarterback La'Norris Sellers all night, a real headache for the unit to deal with, just like last season.

Let's take a look at some takeaways from a much-needed win that the Wildcats let slip away quickly.

Cutter Boley looked out of sorts

Outside of the first quarter, even though Kentucky spent most if it establishing the run game, Cutter Boley looked all out of sorts in his first road test as the starting quarterback for the Wildcats. It started with a fumble returned for a touchdown just 30 seconds into the second quarter, before then committing another turnover, throwing a pick-six, as South Carolina took it for a 45-yard touchdown. Then, Boley threw yet another interception. It was really the story of the night, as Boley could never get comfortable after the horrific second quarter performance. The Lexington native was sacked a total of six times, for a total of 39 yards lost. The Gamecocks also forced 10 tackles for loss. Turnovers were a huge part in Kentucky's quick collapse, as the Wildcats yet again found themselves with a lot of self-inflicted mistakes, committing four turnovers, including both two fumbles and interceptions. Kentucky failed to score on eight of their last nine drives of the game, from the second quarter and on.

Kentucky's defense failed to get stops

One of Kentucky's team-wide bright spots were unable to produce much on Saturday night, as they were unable to capitalize much whenever they had South Carolina behind the chains or even on 3rd-and-long plays. South Carolina quarterback La'Norris Sellers beat up Kentucky's defense all night, Sellers was a threat in the air and on the ground, throwing for 153 yards and running for 81 yards. The dual-threat quarterback had plenty of incredible plays against Kentucky's defense, including a game-high 20-yard scramble, as well as converting on multiple 3rd-and-long plays using his legs that jjust deflated the defense.

Kentucky found themselves committing self-inflicted mistakes once again and were unable to ever recover from it. The Wildcats missed a huge opportunity on the road in a swing game where wins will be really hard to come by looking at their schedule moving forward. South Carolina has now won their last five games against Kentucky. Up next, the Wildcats will head to Athens to take on #5 Georgia.