Go figure

3: Drives of 90 or more yards this season for Georgia.

9: Career 100-yard rushing games for Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno, who finished with 101 yards vs. the Vols.

45: Points for Tennessee in its last four games, the fewest since the Vols scored 28 in a four-game stretch in 1980.

Big man on campus

While Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for a career-high 310 yards on Saturday, one of the two passes he had intercepted ended up in the hands of Tennessee safety Eric Berry.

Berry returned the third-quarter pick 54 yards to set up Tennessee's second TD. In the process, Berry, who has nine picks just 1½ seasons into his college career, set the Vols' career interception return yardage record with 325.

He needs just 55 yards to become the all-time SEC leader, passing Ole Miss' Bobby Wilson (379) and Kentucky's Darryl Bishop (376).

Besides his interception, Berry had seven tackles and delivered some brutal shots, including one in the fourth quarter on Georgia running back Knowshon Moreno. Moreno removed himself from the game and didn't return.

"Too bad we didn't get the win," Berry said.

The game changer

The Vols had a glimmer of hope when they cut Georgia's lead to 14-7, and the Bulldogs took over their next possession at their 3-yard line with 2:17 left in the half.

But with Stafford completing 5-of-6 passes for 61 yards, and Tennessee being tagged with two personal foul penalties (one that was debatable), Georgia drove 97 yards in nine plays for the TD that re-established the Bulldogs' momentum. Stafford zipped a 9-yard TD pass to Mohamed Massaquoi with nine seconds left before halftime for 20-7 lead.

"That 97-yard drive just killed us," lamented Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer.

Odds and ends

Tennessee senior linebacker Ellix Wilson of Melrose can truly say he left everything he had out on the Sanford Stadium turf.

He had a career-high 16 tackles, including 11 in the first half. But he was frustrated that he and his defensive teammates allowed Georgia to run 81 plays and hold the ball 42:04.

"We've been saying the last two weeks that we've got to get offenses off the field on third down," Wilson said. "We didn't do it (against Georgia), and it bit us in the behind. We've got to get off the field when it's time to get off the field."

Tennessee's four personal foul penalties just about sent Fulmer over the edge, especially the two whistled on Georgia's 97-yard drive to close the first half.

"We're slinging people out of bounds, and you can't do that against a good team," Fulmer said. "You get a personal foul penalty, and it's a loss of composure. I think the frustration of the season is showing through. It's being competitive vs. being stupid."

Nice timing by Georgia to have former fullback Verron Haynes as its honorary captain. It was Haynes who caught David Greene's short game-winning TD pass in the final seconds of the Bulldogs' 26-24 win over the Vols in 2001 in Knoxville. The TD became one of recently retired Georgia play-by-play announcer Larry Munson's most famous calls, saying, "We just stepped on their face with a hobbed nail boot and broke their nose."

Audible

"It's a 60-minute game, and any time a team holds the ball 40 minutes on you, you're not going to win."

-- Vols' linebacker Ellix Wilson on Georgia's huge time-of-possession edge