Nashville, TENN--Clark Lea's defense can't have that happen.

It can't lose the margins against an SEC team with physical backs that can extend plays, especially not in the rain. On Saturday it happened, though. Vanderbilt couldn't seem to bring South Carolina running back Rocket Sanders and South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

As a result, it paid the price.

Lea's defense surrendered 214 total rushing yards on Saturday on five yards per carry on the way to a 28-7 loss to the Gamecocks.

That's something that's personal to Lea, who knows the difference that sloppy tackling can make in a game.

"It’s frustrating," Lea said. "You can’t help but feel personally about that a little bit. That’s where I struggle is just that; we want to be the team that’s winning those hard runs."

On Saturday, those runs were won by Sanders and Sellers, who combined for 164 yards on the day.

"Tackling is hard, especially when you’re playing against freaky athletes," Vanderbilt safety CJ Taylor said. "They’ve got a big running back and we struggled to bring him down sometimes."

Taylor and Vanderbilt will look to address that at the bye week, although he feels it's something that will have to come as a collective.

Each of Vanderbilt's individuals will have to take pride in it, though.

"Tackling," Taylor said when asked what needs to improve at the bye. "That’s a team thing. Whenever you’re talking about tackling it’s suffocating the ball, it’s not just an individual thing."

Saturday was the second most production that came against Vanderbilt on the ground all season and was just two yards less than its 216 yards surrendered against Missouri. That was the most it surrendered all season.

Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson feels that a number like that largely came as a result of poor technical play by Vanderbilt and South Carolina's physicality.

"A lot of it’s just leaving our feet, diving on the tackles," Patterson said. "We knew they were two of the best runners we’ve seen all year...There was a lot of diving, a lot of missed tackles. It’s wet, it’s slick. They did a great job running on contact, breaking tackles."

It's back to the drawing board for Lea, who felt his team was prepared for the physicality it would see.

"I felt like we had a plan to neutralize some of those runs and at times we had guys in the right position and just not finishing," Lea said. "The runs that just extend, there was a couple times where I felt like we had the run bottled up and they were able to push the pile, they fought for some hard yards tonight."