South Carolina’s football team suffered one of its most brutal losses in the Shane Beamer era last weekend after being stomped by Vanderbilt 31-7 on its home field. 

The loss bumped the previously No. 11-ranked Gamecocks out of the AP top-25 and created many questions about the team’s ceiling moving forward. Star quarterback LaNorris Sellers exited the game with a concussion and did not return. His status coming into this week is unknown.

Vanderbilt’s win snapped a 16-game South Carolina winning streak in the series. The Commodores' last win came in 2008. 

“When you turn the ball over four times in the SEC, you are going to get your rear ends kicked. That's what happened tonight,” Beamer said. “There is a lot of football in front of us, but we have to get a whole lot better because right now, it's nowhere near good enough.”

South Carolina will look to get back in the win column and even its SEC record at a game apiece this weekend. The team will travel to the other Columbia and play No. 23 Missouri.

Here are three key takeaways from the Gamecocks’ 31-7 loss to Vanderbilt. 

The Gamecocks’ offense struggled with and without their starting QB

While it would be nice to use Sellers’ injury as an excuse for why the Gamecocks lost this game, the team simply can’t. Even with the Heisman hopeful on the field, South Carolina’s offense has looked stagnant. 

Like in the Virginia Tech game, the Gamecocks came out swinging on offense, driving down the field with near-perfection. But from there, it hit a wall. 

South Carolina moved the ball well on its second drive and got inside the red zone, but a misplaced pass went right to a Vandy defender who caught it for an interception. 

The team’s next drive gained just 11 yards before the team punted. Sellers got injured on the following drive and Luke Doty took over for the rest of the game. 

With Doty on the field, the Gamecocks moved the ball but failed to finish any drive, getting shut out the rest of the game.   

South Carolina’s drives in the second half ended in a punt, two turnovers on downs, two fumbles and an interception. 

“You lose the turnover battle like we did tonight, you turn the ball over four times in this league, you are going to get your butts kicked,” Beamer said. “I told the team before the game, Vanderbilt, that's a team you have to go beat. They are not going to give you anything. We didn't do that tonight. Way too much self-inflicted stuff.”

South Carolina’s offense will have to improve if the team wants to compete in the SEC. Three games into the year, the team ranks dead last in the conference for total yardage. They are ranked last in rushing yards and 14th in passing yards.

The Gamecocks are the only team in the SEC not to reach 1,000 yards this season. The team is also struggling to play disciplined, picking up the fourth-most penalty yardage in the conference through three games. 

“When you have that much self-inflicted mistakes, that falls on the head coach. Got to get it corrected,” Beamer said. 

You can’t always rely on special teams

South Carolina’s secret weapon early this season has been its punt return game. In the first two games, Vicari Swain returned three punts for a touchdown. 

In the game against the Commodores, Swain’s return skills were a non-factor. Vanderbilt punted just three times, and Swain returned just one for 11 yards. 

Without Swain’s contributions, both the Virginia Tech and South Carolina State games would have been much closer than their final scores indicated. If the Gamecock defense can’t create opportunities for the return team to take the field, and the offense continues to struggle the way it has, points will be hard to find. 

In another area of special teams, South Carolina’s kicking has left plenty to be desired this season. Mason Love got the start against Vanderbilt after William Joyce kicked in the first two games. 

Love was 0-1 against the Commodores, missing his lone attempt from 53 yards. Joyce kicked the extra point and entered the game 2-3 on field goal attempts and 8-8 on extra points. His miss came from 45 yards against South Carolina State. 

South Carolina’s defense was put to the test 

Perhaps the most disappointing effort from Saturday night did not come from the offense or special teams unit, but from the defense. 

After a promising start against Virginia Tech and South Carolina State, Vanderbilt exposed the Gamecocks' defense in the second half, scoring 17 unanswered points. 

Vanderbilt finished the game with 323 total yards of offense, including 177 in the air. Quarterback Diego Pavia was 18-of-25 with two touchdowns. 

The team rarely got pressure on Pavia, finishing the game with one sack. When the team did reach Pavia, he managed to get outside the pocket and extend plays for big gains. 

This helped Vandy maintain possession and develop long drives. The Gamecocks struggled to get the Commodores off the field as Vanderbilt converted 7-13 third and fourth-down attempts. On the flip side, South Carolina was 5-15. 

“They had a lot of second and longs in the first half, but then, they are converting third downs. We have to get our own butts off the field,” Beamer said. “We have to tackle better. We have to coach better. We have to execute better."

South Carolina’s defense will need to reassess and buckle down this week against a red-hot Missouri team that currently leads the conference in total offense.