Shane Beamer mentioned last week coming out from the Georgia game he was going to be aggressive more often than not, and Saturday some of the aggression didn’t work in the Gamecocks’ favor.

Trailing by six, South Carolina would take a chance and go for it on fourth down and fail to convert on both, giving Kentucky the ball back and failing to capitalize on prime field position and give the Gamecocks a lead late in a 16-10 loss to Kentucky.

"Trying to be aggressive. Hindsight being 20-20 you kick the field goal there to get it to three with the way your defense is playing and you have momentum. As the drive was going on we felt good about if we got to fourth and five or less we felt good about our chances of converting. We had the look we wanted," Beamer said. "I was going to use a timeout there if we didn’t like what the defense was in; we felt good about the play we had called versus the defense they were in and we got to execute."

Trailing 13-7 in the fourth quarter, South Carolina forced a fumble and took over at Kentucky’s 30-yard line only to go backwards on the first play because of a holding play.

The offense found a way to get it to fourth and five from Kentucky’s 25, only to have Luke Doty’s pass dropped by Jalen Brooks, giving the Wildcats the ball back.

“I just got to make that play," Brooks said. "There’s nothing to go around it. I have to make that play. The message from Luke was he knew I had to make that play and he told me I was going to make that play next time.”

But, South Carolina was gifted another chance four plays later with the defense forcing another fumble and giving the offense yet another chance to drive down and either tie the game or take a lead late in the game.

The Gamecocks would run twice on first and second down, losing three on first down and gaining it back on second. Doty’s seven-yard scramble on third down set up a fourth and three, but his pass was incomplete to Joyner on a throw short of the sticks.

But, despite the results, Beamer didn’t have much hesitation either time to go for it, knowing at some point it would be time for the offense to make a play and take some of the pressure off a defense carrying the load most of the game.

They’d go 0-for-3 on fourth down but the issues were compounded with the Gamecocks finishing just 3-for-12 on third down, averaging 7.2 yards to go and just 4.8 yards per play.

"I never flinched thinking about our defense but I didn’t want to keep asking them to get stop after stop after stop," Beamer said. "At some point we have to convert a fricking third or fourth down and get a fricking first down and help our defense by scoring touchdowns. That’s what I was trying to do.”

Kentucky would effectively ice the game on the ensuing drive after the incompletion to Joyner, driving 51 yards in nine plays and milking over five minutes of game time to kick a field goal and go up nine.

The Gamecocks would get the ball back down two scores and opt to kick on that drive, a 54-yard make from Parker White, and then kick the ball deep with only two timeouts instead of onside kicking it.

South Carolina wouldn’t get the ball back with the Wildcats killing the remaining 2:31 to end the game.

“You know, we have clock charts on the sideline based on the time remaining in the game and the timeouts you have left and whether you kick it deep you get the ball back and, if so, with how much time left. The onside kick, there is not great odds of recovering the onside kick," he said.

"Not to say we wouldn’t have, but our defense played their rear ends off and the way they were playing I had confidence in being able to kick the ball deep and use our two timeouts to get the ball back with hopefully field position and some time remaining.”

South Carolina’s offense was anemic again Saturday for the majority of the game outside of a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive.

They’d average 4.2 yards per play and, despite a plus-three turnover margin couldn’t muster enough offense to get South Carolina enough points to win what was a winnable game Saturday night.

“Just credit Kentucky’s defense. They played a good game tonight. They got pressure on us, dropped out and played coverage. It was about finding windows. Those windows are small, but it’s my responsibility to find those windows and hit them," Doty said. "I think I missed a couple later on in the game. They were there for a short time and that’s on me to work up, find them and make sure we convert them. “

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