Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols’ horrendous 63-38 loss at South Carolina

4. Passing game couldn’t generate the big play.

While Tennessee football’s pass defense was single-handedly the story of the game, a unique issue with the offense was the inability of the passing game to generate the big play. You thought after their first quick touchdown to tie it up, mostly on the ground, that the Vols would do what they’ve always done and lure South Carolina in.

When they do that, they usually then hit the opponents over the top for the big plays. However, that didn’t happen here. South Carolina played far off the wideout all night, and they forced Hendon Hooker to take the underneath routes while working the middle of the field. It was made worse by Cedric Tillman’s inability to beat defenders deep.

That became an issue. Hooker missed on too many of those throws, the most costly one being a third down pass that was behind Jacob Warren. Jalin Hyatt had a pass behind him as well, and throughout the night, the passing game just seemed somewhat off to a degree.

Now, Hooker still completed 25-of-42 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns while running for 25 yards, and the offense as a whole had over 500 yards, so this doesn’t outweigh the defensive failures. However, not getting the big plays in the passing game seemed to knock this team out of sync even more.