The stat sheet at halftime featured a fairly damning individual statistic:

Will Shipley: 3 rushes, 5 yards.

Hours later, Brandon Streeter said the offensive staff noticed it and resolved to correct it.

"We highlighted it at halftime and said, 'Hey, that's got to be our number one thing,'" he said. "A guy that plays as hard as him and is as talented as him, we've got to get him the ball more."

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In 2021, the common thread in Clemson's three losses was poor quarterback play. DJ Uiagalelei's numbers against Georgia, N.C. State and Pittsburgh: 43 of 88 passing for 417 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions (with two of those interceptions going back for pick-sixes).

In 2022 the quarterback play in Clemson's three losses was certainly far from great. But you could argue another common thread was present, and perhaps even more prominent, in those games.

After Notre Dame, after South Carolina and yes after Tennessee last night, the coaches offered some variation of the same theme:

"Yep, probably should've given the ball to our running backs more."

In South Bend, Shipley had seven carries for 52 yards at halftime and finished with 12 carries for 63 yards.

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Through three quarters against South Carolina, Shipley had 13 carries for 123 yards -- and then just two carries for 9 yards in the fourth quarter when a field goal by the Gamecocks was enough to end the Tigers' 40-game home winning streak.

And then last night, when Shipley and Phil Mafah combined for 73 yards on 16 carries in the second half after totaling eight attempts for 38 yards before halftime.

Streeter was asked whether 29 pass attempts by Cade Klubnik in the first half represented the plan going in, given that Klubnik is a freshman and was starting for the first time.

"First off we have a ton of confidence in Cade, and he has prepared very, very well. We probably threw the ball too many times, but we continued to make plays or get some pass-interference situations. And we were moving the ball down the field and getting some chunks. So we were having some success and I think our guys were feeling it. And like I said, just didn't finish some of those drives.

"But in hindsight, yes we probably should've run the ball a little bit more in the first half and given him a little bit of a breather, and more situations where he can settle in a little bit."

From the outside looking in, it's easy and even reasonable to say quarterback play is the central factor in Clemson's decline over the past two seasons.

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When they had Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, they were 67-5 over five seasons from 2015 to 2020 (Kelly Bryant season in 2017 excepted, even though they still advanced to the CFP that year).

In the past two seasons they've lost six games, and it doesn't take a football whiz to deduce that they haven't been as good at quarterback while also not being nearly as good on the outside.

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Yes, the stars aligned in a truly special way during that playoff run when a group of truly special players, generational talents on both sides of the ball, happened to be at Clemson at the same time.

But you simply can't pin it all on the guys wearing the helmets and gloss over the highly-compensated individuals wearing the headsets.

Not when the three losses this season featured instances of the coaches failing to get out of their own way in the areas of play-calling and feel for the game.

One area of the play-by-play sticks out from last night, after Tennessee went up 14-0 and Clemson once again drove into Vols territory.

After a pass to Shipley produced 11 yards and put the ball at Tennessee's 30, here's what the rest of the drive looks like:

Klubnik rush right for 8 yards

Klubnik rush right for 3 yards

Klubnik pass complete to Cole Turner for 1-yard loss

Klubnik rush middle for 6 yards

Klubnik pass incomplete to Drew Swinney

BT Potter 31-yard field-goal attempt good

It wasn't just dumb luck that Clemson lived in Tennessee territory and scored just one offensive touchdown.

It also wasn't all on the freshman quarterback who made the grave mistake at the end of the first half, while also probably providing some evidence as to why the coaches were hesitant to roll with him earlier in the season.

When you get to the red zone and seem to forget that a couple of really good running backs tend to come in handy in such situations, it tends to be glaring.

The time for coaches to spot this problem is not at halftime or after the game.

And when the three losses on a season are all followed by the same refrain, you know it's a problem.

Yeah, the quarterback should've had better situational awareness at times last night.

But you can say the same thing about the guys calling the shots.

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