Five plays that led to South Carolina football's dramatic victory over Missouri

That was too close. But hey, a win is a win, right? Even though South Carolina didn’t play its best on Saturday, it still found a way to hold on and pick up a fourth-consecutive win.

The No. 21 Gamecocks, after blowing multiple late leads, overcame No. 23 Missouri’s comeback efforts to pick up a 34-30 win at Williams-Brice Stadium. The win snapped a five-game losing streak to the Tigers that dated back to 2019.

Here are five plays that helped South Carolina earn its seventh win of the season and bring the Mayor’s Cup back to the Capital City.

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Rocket blasts through a small meteor shower

How can we talk about five of the biggest plays from this game and not mention this one? When so many unlikely heroes came through with big plays in the fourth quarter, it was star running back Rocket Sanders got in on the action and made the biggest one at the end.

Down by three points with 22 seconds left, the Gamecocks were well within field goal range to try and tie the game at the very least. But they weren’t playing for the tie. They were going to do what they could to go for the win. On 2nd and 4, the offense got creative and ran a shovel pass play to Sanders who lowered a shoulder and plowed through multiple defenders on his way to the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown.

“Once he broke that talk from the backer, I don’t think any DB in the conference wants to tackle Rocket,” LaNorris Sellers said. “So once he did that, he broke the second one. I was like, all right, maybe get down to five or something like that. But then he broke another one, and another, it’s like there’s the game right there.”

This would prove to be the difference in the game, as South Carolina now owned a 34-30 lead and held on the rest of the way.

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Kilgore makes up for earlier mistake and calls game

You can’t talk about Sanders’ go-ahead score without mentioning what transpired a few seconds later. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Jalon Kilgore missed a key tackle on a 37-yard touchdown for Missouri’s Luther Burden to give the Tigers a 30-27 lead with a little over a minute left in the fourth quarter. This seemed like it would’ve been the one that killed the defense in the end. But after Sanders’ touchdown catch, the unit as well as Kilgore had one more chance to go out on top.

On the first play of Missouri’s final drive, Kyle Kennard sacked Brady Cook to set up potentially one final play in a do-or-die situation for the Tigers. And the next play would be the last one for Missouri’s offense, as Cook’s final pass sailed right into the hands of a diving Kilgore for the game-sealing interception.

“What an interception by Kilgore to seal the game at the end,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “Just so much good stuff on that tape.”

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Houdini Sellers does it again!

Spoiler alert: pretty much all of these plays came in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. That’s pretty much where most of the crazier action in this game took place. All big victories start with that one play to set the wheels in motion for everything that transpires after. South Carolina had one of those on Saturday.

With the Gamecocks trailing 22-21 with just over seven minutes to play, they were running out of chances, facing a crucial 3rd and 10 spot at their own 35-yard line. Sellers faced heavy pressure and was nearly brought to the ground by Missouri EDGE Johnny Walker. However, the redshirt freshman quarterback narrowly avoided a disastrous sack and stayed alive.

Sellers rolled out to the left and then found Brady Hunt for an 11-yard gain to pick up the first down and extend the drive, which resulted in a five-yard touchdown catch by Michael Smith.

“Once I break the first tackle, I’ve just got to make sure nobody else is around me. Then it’s find a receiver downfield, depending on the down and distance, if I can run it,” Sellers said. “But it’s find a receiver downfield. If nobody’s open, then I’ll run it. But Brady was open. Just had to make sure he saw the safety when he turned his head and caught the ball.”

On a night where Sellers set the world on fire with 353 passing yards and five touchdowns, this was potentially his most important play of the game. If he had been sacked, it would’ve been fourth down and there’s no telling how the rest of the game goes from there.

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Dalevon Campbell’s drive-extending plays

This game featured so many plays made by players who hadn’t made the biggest impacts before Saturday. But that certainly changed in this game. One of the players who came through the most was sixth-year receiver Dalevon Campbell, who only had four catches for 46 yards all season.

But just when you least expected it, Campbell made two of the biggest plays of the night with a pair of long catch and runs. On the next play following Sellers’ third-down completion to Hunt, he threw to Campbell, who took it 47 yards and got into the red zone to set up Smith’s first touchdown catch of the year.

Later in the fourth quarter, Campbell made another big grab when he hauled in a 39-yard pass to allow for Sanders’ 15-yard score two plays later. These were Campbell’s only catches of the game. He only had two for 86 yards. But they proved to be some of the most effective in the win for the Gamecocks.

“Dalevon Campbell, Brady Hunt, guys that didn’t even know they were going to have meaningful roles tonight. They have a meaningful role but play as much as they did,” Beamer said. “You never know when your moment is going to be called. So proud of them.”

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Not letting Mizzou capitalize on a costly mistake

It might be hard to remember, but we’re going to go all the way back to the first half to find the final play that proved to have an important impact on the game. And it may not seem like any plays from the first half were that important, considering South Carolina blew a 21-6 lead, but this one certainly was.

After Sellers overthrew a pass for an interception midway through the second quarter, Missouri had a golden opportunity to take advantage of the short field and reclaim the lead. But facing the Gamecock defense slightly complicated that.

With 3rd and 5 at the SC 24, TJ Sanders blew past the offensive lineman in front of him and sacked Cook for an eight-yard loss. After going 2-for-2 on field goal tries earlier in the game, Tigers kicker Blake Craig missed a 49-yarder, as Missouri came away with no points after getting the turnover.

Right after that, the Gamecocks drove down the field and scored on a six-yard touchdown catch by Josh Simon to take a 14-6 lead in the first half. Instead of this being an early moment where the Tigers came through, it was the defense bailing out the offense for one of its mistakes.

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