SEC

Shaw, South Carolina overwhelm Missouri

South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw (right) breaks free from Missouri defensive end Kony Ealy during Saturday’s game at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. Shaw completed 20 of 21 passes for 252 yards and 2 touchdowns.
South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw (right) breaks free from Missouri defensive end Kony Ealy during Saturday’s game at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C. Shaw completed 20 of 21 passes for 252 yards and 2 touchdowns.

— Leave it to Steve Spurrier to focus on Connor Shaw’s one mistake.

“Well, he got off to a slow start,” the South Carolina coach said with a grin. “He missed his first one, I think.”

Shaw was flawless after that, completing his final 20 passes for 252 yards and 2 touchdowns in the seventhranked Gamecocks 31-10 victory over Missouri on Saturday.

The Tigers’ first SEC road game didn’t go any better than their first SEC home game, a 41-20 loss to No. 5 Georgia. This might have been worse.

Missouri was competitive two weeks back against Georgia. The Tigers led 20-16 in the third quarter before the Bulldogs grabbed three turnovers to take control in a 41-20 victory. But that game took place in Missouri and the Tigers found the going much tougher in the first SEC road game.

“Our focus wasn’t good enough, and that’s coaching, so that was my fault,” Pinkel said.

Missouri’s fast-paced offense managed seven first downs through three quarters and ended with a season-low 255 yards.

“I was very disappointed in how we played,” Pinkel said.

Spurrier, the Heisman Trophy winning passer who is known to be tough on QBs as a coach, gave Shaw a game ball and plenty of praise after a performance that left the junior tied for second all-time in the SEC for consecutive completions.

Marcus Lattimore ran for 85 yards and two touchdowns to set another school record as the Gamecocks moved to 4-0 for the ninth time in 119 years of football. They are 2-0 in the SEC.

Shaw had played less than two quarters the past two games, dealing with a hairline fracture in his right throwing shoulder. But Spurrier said early in the week that Shaw was ready to go against Missouri, and he was right.

“I just found a groove and stayed with it,” said Shaw, who is 11-1 as a starter.

He was nearly unstoppable against Missouri (2-2, 0-2), which struggled against a Gamecocks defense that has given up three touchdowns all year and hadn’t yielded a TD from inside the 20 until the Tigers completed a scoring pass at the end. Missouri had a season-low 255 yards.

Starting quarterback James Franklin was back after missing last week’s victory over Arizona State because of a shoulder problem. He was held to 92 yards passing and was sacked three times.

“I don’t even know how many times we gave ourselves a chance to make plays,” Missouri receiver T.J. Moe said. “We were dropping balls all over the place and not making plays. We were so bad offensively, we didn’t put ourselves in position to make plays. That’s hard to do.”

South Carolina linebacker Shaq Wilson said he could feel Missouri’s up-tempo offense slowing down.

“We practiced hard during the week and then came out here and put on a show,” Wilson said.

The Gamecocks’ defense didn’t miss senior safety D.J. Swearinger, suspended by the SEC for his hit on UAB’s Patrick Hearn last week. Missouri had 151 yards through three quarters.

The Tigers finally scored on Corbin Berkstresser’s 1-yard pass to Marcus Lucas with 17 seconds left.

Sports, Pages 33 on 09/23/2012

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