BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Garrett Nussmeier passed for two touchdowns, LSU’s defense contained South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers, and the 11th-ranked Tigers overcame three turnovers to defeat the Gamecocks 20-10 on Saturday night.
The victory arguably should have been easier for LSU (5-1, 2-1 SEC), which twice lost the ball right at the South Carolina goal line. The first of Nussmeier’s two interceptions also occurred on the Gamecocks’ side of the field.
Tight end Trey’Dez Green helped the Tigers overcome the mistakes by catching eight passes for 119 yards and a touchdown. Kyle Parker had five catches for 75 yards, highlighted by his 43-yard score on which he snagged a short slant pass in stride and ran away from everyone.
LSU also rushed for a season-high 168 yards, led by Caden Durham’s 70 yards on 15 carries.
Damian Ramos’ second field goal of the game all but sealed it with 1:46 left, capping a drive that started after LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane had broken up Sellers’ fourth-down pass with 5:43 left.
Sellers passed for 124 yards, took five sacks and was intercepted once. He drove South Carolina (3-3, 1-3) into LSU territory six times, but four of those possessions produced no points. The first ended with a missed field goal, two ended with punts and the last with a turnover on downs.
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LSU was on the brink of taking a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter as running back Ju’Juan Johnson fought through tacklers to try to reach the goal line. But defensive tackle Monkell Goodwine dislodged the ball and edge rusher Bryan Thomas Jr. recovered in the end zone.
Three plays later Matt Fuller, who entered the game with 71 yards rushing this season, broke loose for a 72-yard touchdown run to give the Gamecocks a 7-3 lead.
The takeaway
South Carolina: Sellers has struggled in the passing game several times this season and did so again against an LSU defense that was also quick enough to largely contain him, limiting him to 19 net yards rushing (on gains of 74 and losses of 55). Two drives into Tigers territory were stunted by intentional grounding penalties.
LSU: Inconsistent execution continues to plague a Tigers’ offense that saw several promising drives come to nothing. LSU had seven possessions end with four punts and three with turnovers. They’ve scored an average of 19 points in their four power conference games.
Up next
South Carolina: Hosts Oklahoma next Saturday.
LSU: Visits Vanderbilt next Saturday.