After showing signs of improvement in the first half last week against Missouri, the South Carolina defense flat-out dominated Saturday night against Kentucky.

“It felt really good. Coming in we knew what they were gonna try and do. They were gonna try and run the ball,” Ernest Jones said. “Past three or four times we've played them they’ve run the ball 40-plus times. So we knew coming in we needed to stop that. The front seven, we put our whole week into we’re gonna stop the run, we’re going to make this game one-dimensional."

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Coming in averaging 177.2 rushing yards per game, Kentucky only managed 115 on 28 attempts tonight.

“We were stopping the run and forcing them to throw the ball, making it a one-dimensional game,” D.J. Wonnum said. We were able to get after the quarterback."

Wonnum, who entered this week with no sacks to his name in 2019, was a direct beneficiary of South Carolina’s increased defensive motor, notching a career-high three sacks in the 24-7 win that snapped a five-game losing streak to the Wildcats.

Even after a performance that saw them only give up 212 total yards and seven points, the defense knows they still have room to grow.

They’d give up a few long runs to Lyn Bowden and got out of character late, giving up a 84-yard touchdown drive to break up what would have been South Carolina’s first shutout since 2008.

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“We definitely still have stuff we can clean up. Going in we were trying to shut them out, towards the end we got sloppy, didn’t execute some calls,” Jones said. “There’s definitely a lot of stuff to work on. The off week is going to be beneficial.”

Wonnum agreed, even after his monster night that included a trio of sacks and a forced fumble.

“There’s definitely room for improvement,” he said, “just going out there tonight and playing fast, we’re going to continue to improve and continue to bring it each Saturday.”

The front seven managed eight tackles for loss, including four sacks, and forced two turnovers with Ernest Jones and picking off Sawyer Smith and Aaron Sterling recovering a fumble forced by Jahmar Brown.

The Gamecocks (2-3, 1-2 SEC) enter a bye week on a one-game win streak before traveling to Georgia Oct. 12.