How South Carolina Dealt The Final Blow To Texas A&M

South Carolina had multiple opportunities against the Texas A&M Aggies to put this game out of reach before the fourth quarter started. They had a 17-0 lead just five minutes into the football due to some Beamer Ball and turnovers forced on defense leading to points, but the Aggies stormed back in the second quarter, cutting the lead to three just before halftime.

The Gamecocks then pushed their lead to ten points late in the 3rd quarter and had just gotten the ball back after the Aggies' offense went three and out, and four plays later, it was a three-point ballgame again.

So when South Carolina got the ball back with 8:21 left in the contest while only holding onto a slim three-point lead, head coach Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks knew this drive needed to end with some points at a minimum and, at best, a touchdown.

The Gamecocks would get just what the doctor ordered, as they executed an 80-yard drive in eight plays which led to a MarShawn Lloyd touchdown run and put the Gamecocks up two scores, giving them the cushion that led to the eventual win in Williams-Brice.

"That it was a big-time drive," Beamer said in his postgame press conference. "We pride ourselves on being a really physical football team. What more could you want? A drive to go right down the field and put the game away. So that was basically the message, enough's enough. Let's go get points right here and try and put this thing away."

Lloyd was the catalyst for the game-sealing drive, rushing for 34 yards, including the four-yard touchdown run that capped off the drive, one that Lloyd and the rest of the offense felt confident in regarding how they thought things would play out.

"Once we got the ball back from our defense, the offense pretty much just said [we'll] put our foot down, and we knew we were gonna get down there towards the end."

Quarterback Spencer Rattler, who had his postgame press conference, later said that he believes, when looking at the drive in its entirety, it's up there as one of the best on the season for this team.

"It was big time. Our mindset there was let's go 80 yards and go score. We knew we needed to take time off the clock, we knew we needed to make another statement and put the game to bed, and we drove down the field, and it was a great feeling."

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