We look at the key plays, hand and game balls, and ask the burning question following South Carolina's 20-17 win over East Carolina.

Three Key Plays

1. Trick play

On East Carolina’s first play from scrimmage, receiver Tyler Snead got the ball on an end around, planted, and threw deep to a wide-open Jsi Hatfield, who was behind the defense for a 75-yard touchdown. Shane Beamer warned the defense that East Carolina probably had a splash play they would run on the first possession, but the warning fell on deaf ears. East Carolina lived off that one play for most of the game as the South Carolina defense shut the Pirates down. The Pirates managed just 77 yards passing the rest of the game to go with 116 rushing yards. The only other touchdown came on a 13-yard drive.

2. Damani Staley’s Pick-Six

South Carolina trailed 14-0 late in the second quarter and nothing had gone right. The offense was struggling tremendously, and the only time the Gamecocks were able to move the ball Josh Vann ended up fumbling on the goal line. But just as it only took a fluke play to put East Carolina ahead, it was a fluke play that got South Carolina back in the game. South Carolina’s pass rush had been getting good pressure, so East Carolin tried to counter with a screen pass. Still, Aaron Sterling got in the backfield so quickly that Holton Ahlers had to throw before the play had developed. The pass was hard and early and bounced off Rahjai Harris' facemask and right to Damani Staley. Staley took it back 63 yards for the touchdown. Suddenly, the Gamecocks were back in the game and with some momentum going into halftime.

“We were struggling for anything at that point,” Beamer said. “That momentum that we felt going into halftime because of that play was huge.”

3. Juju McDowell’s big return

East Carolina retook a 17-14 lead, but South Carolina leaned on its special teams. On the ensuing kickoff, McDowell got a huge lane on the return and picked up 63 yards, setting the Gamecocks up at the Pirate 33. The return basically was the drive - South Carolina only picked up 12 yards - but was in position for the game-tying field goal.

Two Game Balls

1. Juju McDowell

Zeb Noland was struggling, and so at halftime, Beamer decided to lean on the running backs. McDowell made the most of it. He finished with 11 rushes for 71 yards, both team-highs. He set up the game-tying field goal with his 63-yard kickoff return. And then he set up the game-winning field goal with six carries for 45 yards, including staying inbounds on the last one so South Carolina could run down the clock.

“If we’re going down, we’re going to go down running the football,” Beamer said. “I told the running backs at halftime they were going to get the ball.

“It’s hard to play four, but Juju had the hot hand down the stretch.”

2. Special teams

Beamer Ball is alive and well. South Carolina scored on offense and defense and special teams, and special teams won the game. McDowell had the big return. Parker White made all his kicks. On the game-tying kick, holder Kai Kroeger did a fantastic job catching a high-snap and getting it down in time for White’s kick. On the game-winning kick, White said everything went exactly the way the Gamecocks did it in practice.

“I was confident in my abilities to go out there and execute,” he said. “We were prepared to go out and execute.”

One Burning Question

Can South Carolina eliminate the penalties?

The good news is that South Carolina won even though almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The bad news is that South Carolina continues to hurt itself with penalties. The Gamecocks were penalized eight times for 55 yards, plus three targeting penalties that were overturned. Beamer called the penalties dumb, and none was dumber than a taunting penalty on Cam Smith after he broke up a pass, changing a third and long to a first down. South Carolina’s margin for error isn’t big enough to accommodate penalties.

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