No. 17 Arkansas 41, No. 18 South Carolina 20: Razorbacks Assert SEC West Dominance

Watching Arkansas play South Carolina, it almost seemed offensively unfair that Arkansas was the team with virtually no chance of winning an SEC title.

The Razorbacks handed South Carolina a full-on whipping, winning 41-20 after leading 34-10 entering the fourth quarter, forcing three turnovers, holding the Gamecocks under 300 yards of total offense, and generally wiping the floor with the SEC East leaders in every way.

Ryan Mallett was superb, throwing for 303 yards on 21-of-30 passing, and Knile Davis was almost as good on the ground, gashing the Gamecocks repeatedly and racking up 110 yards. South Carolina's offense was far less proficient.

Superb freshman Marcus Lattimore was bottled up, gaining just 30 yards on 11 carries, and that and an early lead led to Arkansas being able to key on the pass. Stephen Garcia responded by throwing two interceptions and completing less than half of his passes.

And yet, again, it's South Carolina that can still win the SEC by winning out, and South Carolina that managed to beat Alabama this year. The SEC may have lost a step as a conference this season, but what it lacks in balance, it has more than made up for with beating administered by teams from the West on teams from the East.

For more on this game, please visit Garnet and Black Attack and Arkansas Expats.

It might actually look like there was a football game played in Williams-Brice on Saturday evening. Stephon Gilmore hit backup Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson and Byron McKnight picked it up and stepped into the end zone for South Carolina.

It’s now 41-20 in the Razorbacks’ favor.

For whatever reason, South Carolina just decided to kick a field goal deep in Arkansas territory. Your score is now 41-13. Your game is still over.

Any hopes of a miracle comeback for South Carolina ended late in the third quarter, when a Stephen Garcia pass apparently intended for Marcus Lattimore floated into the air after Garcia was hit. It went to Greg Gatson, who is notable for being an Arkansas player, and the Razorbacks got the ball on the Gamecocks 35.

Arkansas got an easy touchdown. Stephen Garcia has been pulled and South Carolina has basically conceded the game. Steve Spurrier and crew have to quickly return to the drawing board; next week the team heads to Gainesville for the most important game in the program’s history, and at the moment the Gamecocks are not looking ready for it.

Time is running out for South Carolina. Arkansas just kicked a 51-yard field goal to push the lead to 34-10 with a bit more than a minute left in the third quarter. Barring a stunning comeback, this game is basically over, which could knock the Gamecocks clear out of the Top 25.

South Carolina looked to get a much-needed spark on Arkansas’ first drive of the game, when DeVonte Holloman picked off a tipped ball from Ryan Mallett. But on third down, Tramain Thomas intercepted a pass from Stephen Garcia, giving Arkansas the ball on the Gamecocks 20.

Knile Davis pretty much took care of things from there, including a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Razorbacks a 21-point lead.

With South Carolina’s problems in the defensive secondary and Arkansas’ problems in the defensive everything, there was a line of thought that this game was a potential shootout. For the first half, at least, you can take out the “potential” part of that.

The 34 points isn’t really that much on the high side, though it’s not a small total for the defense-minded SEC, but the teams have also combined for 459 yards of total offense. That puts them on pace for more than 900 total yards, which is an impressive total no matter what conference you’re playing in. That is, aside from the offense-happy WAC.

The good news for Arkansas fans is that they have 261 of those yards and, more importantly, 24 of those points.

Ryan Mallett is 14-of-20 for 213 yards and a touchdown; Knile Davis has added two scores on the ground. Stephen Garcia has been a bit more erratic, throwing 11-of-22 for 142 yards and a touchdown, while Marcus Lattimore has been limited to 26 yards on nine carries.

South Carolina has missed its share of opportunities in this game, but if either Garcia or Lattimore doesn’t get something going quickly, that might not matter.

South Carolina started their final drive at their own 43-yard line, and drove down the field. They appeared to get a touchdown that would have cut the Arkansas lead to 10, but Alshon Jeffery was flagged for pass interference, giving South Carolina one of those in the end zone on each side of the ball tonight.

The Gamecocks were forced to settle for a field goal, and go into the locker room down by two touchdowns.

It didn’t take long for Arkansas to capitalize on the missed field goal. Ryan Mallett hit Jarius Wright for a 57-yard strike to the South Carolina 23. The Gamecocks almost stopped the drive on third-and-one, but an obvious pass interference in the end zone gave the Razorbacks a first down at the two, and Knile Davis ran the ball in to increase Arkansas’ lead to 10.

South Carolina’s next drive broke down on the Gamecocks 38. Steve Spurrier called for the fake punt, which went nowhere, giving Arkansas a short field. Davis capped off another touchdown drive with a 21-yard run a few plays later.

For those of you who might have missed it, or just want to see it again, a look at Alshon Jeffery's one-handed catch:

The drive ended up without point after a missed FG. But it's still a nice highlight for South Carolina fans if the game continues to go downhill.

It looked for a moment, to everyone who was not an official in Williams-Brice Stadium, like Stephen Garcia had fumbled. An Arkansas player had Garcia all but tackled, and the quarterback couldn’t quite get his arm moving forward before the ball popped out.

But the officials ruled that Garcia’s forward progress had been stopped, and the Gamecocks got another chance to score. No matter. The drive ended up well short of the goal line, and a 29-yard FG clanked off the left upright.

The consolation prize for the Gamecocks’ defense is that it could have been worse: Arkansas drove down to the South Carolina 18, but Akeem Auguste sacked Mallett at the 24-yard line to force a 41-yard field goal.

South Carolina still hasn’t gotten Marcus Lattimore started, but Stephen Garcia will more than do in a pinch: The mercurial Gamecocks quarterback was 4-of-4 for 68 yards and threw a touchdown strike to Tori Gurley to cap off the drive.

The rules now require South Carolina to give the ball back to Ryan Mallett, so we’ll see how long that lead might last.

The first Arkansas drive of the game was every South Carolina fan’s worst nightmare entering play: Receivers were wide open, and Ryan Mallett found them with relative ease. Mallett was 3-of-4 for 50 yards, including a touchdown pass to Cobi Hamilton.

South Carolina has been notably less successful on offense, with a three-and-out to start the game without getting the ball to star running back Marcus Lattimore. His first run — on South Carolina’s second drive — lost about a yard.

SB Nation's Arkansas and South Carolina communities discuss today's game, and whether the Gamecocks can weather their traditional late-season faceplant:

Recent history shows that the Gamecocks tend to start strong and then fade in November. Is this the year you avoid the swoon, or do you see it coming again? And either way, what does that answer mean for Steve Spurrier's future?

Whether we avoid it this year or not remains to be seen, of course. However, I do think the chances of it happening are better than they have been in the past. One thing that many folks (cough*UGA fans*cough) oftentimes leave out regarding the infamous Carolina November swoon is that the teams Carolina plays in late October and early November are all tough teams that give most programs problems--Tennessee, Florida, and, yes, even Arkansas, although you'll grant that you're not exactly in Florida territory. Carolina may tend to tally up most of its losses late in the season, but it's not like we're going into most of these games as favorites and then totally wetting the bed. We're usually just losing to the teams that are supposed to beat us. That should be a bit different this year. Out of the typical Tennessee-Arkansas-Florida-Clemson run, only Arkansas looks to have a team approaching or measurably better than the norm. Combine that with the fact that Carolina looks a bit better than usual, and I think you have the recipe for a strong finish in Columbia. We'll see, of course, but that's the way I see it right now.

As far as Spurrier's future goes, I think it depends on who you ask.

SB Nation's South Carolina and Arkansas communities discuss today's game, and the job Bobby Petrino's doing coaching the Razorbacks:

Talk to us about your view of the job Bobby Petrino is doing in Fayetteville. Although it looks like Arkansas will miss out on the SEC championship game, are you happy with the way the season is going?

Overall, Petrino has done a fine job in Fayetteville. When he took over the program nearly three years ago, the cupboard was pretty bare, but the Hogs missed bowl eligibility by only one victory in 2008, and they improved to seven regular-season wins last year. This season, Arkansas is well positioned to again improve its season victory total. On top of that, the Hogs possess the most explosive offensive attack in the history of the program. As has been well documented, however, the Razorbacks' defense and special teams must improve for the team to seriously compete in the SEC, and we'll just have to wait and see if Petrino and his staff are able to upgrade those units.

Having said all that, the season does feel like a slight disap­point­ment for seve­ral rea­sons. First off, while there's cer­tainly no shame in losing to Ala­bama or Auburn, the Hogs had leads in the fourth quarter of those contests only to per­for­m ineptly in the final minu­tes. [Eds. note: where have I heard that before?] And in most of their other games, the Hogs have loo­ked somewhat sluggish. For whatever reasons, Arkansas often has had trouble scoring in the second half.