Tennessee football: Vols-Gamecocks by the numbers, another three-point loss

The Tennessee football teams dropped another close game to South Carolina. Sitting at 3-5 on the season getting to a bowl game is looking tough to accomplish.

Another season brings yet another time South Carolina’s head coach Will Muschamp gets to walk off the field victorious against Tennessee. Somehow Muschamp moves to 7-0 against the Vols. And, what makes the losing streak so unbearable for Vol fans is he isn’t an elite coach.

With the loss, Tennessee football falls to 3-5 (1-3 SEC) on the season. With only four games remaining, and the Vols need to win three of them to make a bowl game. Can they do it? Sure. However, there are a few things to clean up.

Here is how the game against the Gamecocks broke down by the numbers.

207- passing yards from quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. Yet another game Guarantano takes care of the football and plays a solid game. He finished the game 27-of-39 with 207 yards passing with two touchdowns and zero interceptions.

This makes the second 200-plus yard passing game of the season for the sophomore quarterback. People are going to knock Guarantano on his lack of pocket awareness but the kid is tough and at least for me has proved he should be the starting quarterback.

140- rushing yards from running back Rico Dowdle. The Vols defensive line played well to start the game. But, in typical fashion this season, they started to fade during the game. This was Dowdle’s first 100-yard game since the 112 yards he posted against Vanderbilt earlier this season.

68.75- percent on third down conversions for the Vols. Tennessee played well and made some huge plays on third down, but it ended up not mattering.

27- completions for quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. This ranks as the most in his two-year career. His previous high was 21 completions against Auburn when he threw for a career-high 328 passing yards.

17- minutes is the amount of time the Vols possessed the ball longer than the Gamecocks. The entire game it felt like it was Tennessee’s to lose. The controlled the tempo and the time of possession, almost an entire half more. It wasn’t just odd Tennessee lost the game, it was in fact, remarkable they lost.

9- receptions for wide receiver Marquez Callaway. The junior wide receiver continues to do his thing. Against South Carolina, he accounted for nine receptions for 86 yards. That is a season-high in both receptions and yards.

8- offensive penalties ended up costing the Vols 75 yards. But, it wasn’t just the yards that hurt Tennessee, it was the time the penalties happened. Jauan Jennings plays with a lot of passion and is a vital piece to the success for the Volunteers. However, the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty he got right before halftime really hurt the momentum they had. Without the penalty, the Vols probably take an 11-point lead into the half.

3- receptions for wide receiver Deebo Samuel. If you had told me before the game that the Vols would hold Deebo Samuel to three receptions, I would have bet a lot of money South Carolina would have lost the game. The Vols shut down one of the best receivers in the SEC and still lost the game.

1- horrible pass interference call on Baylan Buchanan that ended up costing the Vols the game. Tennessee did a lot of stuff right. However, they ended up doing too many things wrong. And, they didn’t have help from the refs. Noone needs to play the blame game because Tennessee could have easily won the game. But, the missed fumble on the goal but the called pass interference on Baylan Buchanan cost Tennessee the game.