South Carolina got quarterback LaNorris Sellers back for its game against Ole Miss, but the freshman quarterback found little traction against the active Rebel defense.

Ole Miss suffocated the Gamecocks, 27-3, to move to 5-1 on the season and bounce back from the three-point loss to Kentucky last weekend. The Rebels didn’t allow a touchdown for the fourth time this season.

Ole Miss is third nationally in points allowed per game this season, behind Ohio State and Texas.

Sellers completed 20-of-32 passes but only for 162 yards and one interception. The longest Carolina throw-and-catch of the afternoon was for 17 yards. South Carolina had only three completions of more than 15 yards.

“We wanted to run it in order to take some shots down the field and get the ball out of LaNorris’ hands, but they were a little bit differently on defense than we expected them to,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “That was an adjustment we had to make with the way they played coverage.

“I thought we were better with more tempo after the half, but it wasn’t good enough.”

Sellers suffered an ankle injury against LSU in week three and missed USC's week four game prior to its bye week.

The Ole Miss defense particularly shut down South Carolina down the field. Sellers only attempted one pass – an incompletion – more than 20 yards down the field, and he was 2-for-8 on passes that traveled more than 10 yards in the air.

“We had some shot plays called down the field, and we couldn’t hit on them or get to them,” Beamer said. “Whether it was routes getting open or where Sellers eyes are. We just couldn’t get that linked up.”

The Rebels pressured Sellers on 20 of his 44 dropbacks despite blitzing on only 18 percent of passing downs. His yards per attempt under pressure was only a 3.8 and only 4.9 overall. He completed two of his seven passes on eight dropbacks facing an Ole Miss blitz.

Ole Miss sacked Sellers six times, with Jared Ivey and Walter Nolen getting two each and Suntarine Perkins and TJ Dottery getting one each. Dottery and Perks led the Rebels with 12 and 12 tackles, respectively.

Nolen (5) and Perkins (4) led Ole Miss in defensive pressures. Chris Paul hit Sellers three times despite not recording a sack. South Carolina entered the week allowing the seventh most sacks nationally with 16. Ole Miss was tied for third nationally in sacks forced through five weeks.

Trey Amos, who had the one interception, and Yam Banks had the highest coverage scores among Ole Miss defenders, per PFF College, at 81.6 and 80.5.

“I thought (Sellers) played his butt off, battled, took some hits,” Beamer said. “I thought he was tough and competitive. He made good decisions. They got us some.”