Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm, the Vols sure threw us a big ole curve ball on GameDay 5.
I said all during the bye week break that Arkansas always gives Tennessee fits for some reason. I never bought into the predictions that the Vols were going to roll through Fayetteville with ease on their way to their annual dates with the Gators and Tide. I knew they would have their hands full with the Hogs as they always do. But….I did expect them to somehow get back across the Mississippi River with a win. Clearly now with 20-20 hindsight, that was pure wishful thinking on my part.
The Vols may have single handedly saved former Vol offensive line coach and current head coach at Arkansas Sam Pittman’s job. He had maneuvered himself onto the proverbial hot seat with the Hogs and was most likely headed to the exit. And then, here comes the Vols to help their ol’ coach out of a jam. Couldn’t have been scripted any better, made for Hollywood plot.
What the heck happened to the 4th ranked and previously undefeated Tennessee Volunteers that were going to be moving up in the rankings after the shocking Vandy upset of previously #1 ranked Bama?
That Vandy upset of Bama is probably the only thing taking a little of the sting out of the Vols’ loss. Back to the question, the Vols flat out played sloppy and undisciplined. The Vols had 10 penalties for 60 yards. The yardage isn’t a huge amount but as Heupel painfully discussed during the post-game interview, the Vols kept putting themselves behind the chains on offense. That’s an offense that appears to have lost it’s identity. An offense that can no longer seem to easily make up for a false start or a holding penalty. And the biggest penalty of the night wasn’t on offense but a short 5-yarder for running into the kicker to begin the fourth quarter.
The penalty gave the Hogs an unearned first down but more importantly, it gave them a huge jolt of energy which they converted into a field goal. Think about the importance of that field goal. Take it off the board and Arkansas can’t win the game with a last second field goal. With that score change, Heupel doesn’t let them have the walk in TD. Whatever, the struggling Vol offense needed every possession it could get and that was a lost possession it desperately needed.
So the Vol offense could get very little going in a hostile road environment and the vaunted Vol defense couldn’t get a stop when it was needed most. After making two incredible 4th down stops and two more stops in the shadows of their goal posts that made Arkansas kick two short field goals, the defense failed to stop a length of the field drive led by the Hogs backup quarterback.
The game winning drive looked way too easy. The TD was a give away by Heupel hoping to avoid a last play winning field goal with no time left on the clock. But the Hogs just coasted down the field while draining the clock forcing Heupel to make a strategy call on the walk in TD. Was the Vol defense out of gas? Arkansas had the ball for almost ten minutes longer than Tennessee. Not sure that wore the defense out but it looked like anything but one of the country’s top defenses on that last drive.
Now back to the bigger current problem that the Vols appear to be battling, the Vol offense as noted earlier appears to have lost it’s identity the last two games. The OU game was explained away as a brilliant coaching decision to play ball control against a OU offense that couldn’t score, at least until the last quarter. Does anyone believe that Heupel wouldn’t have put 50+ on the OU scoreboard if the Vols’ offense had showed any ability to do so? And then against Arkansas, the offense appeared to have stayed on the bus during a first half where they put a goose egg on the scoreboard. Arkansas is not a juggernaut defensive unit. I’m unable at the time of this writing to find the current rankings of defensive units but the Vols will see better in upcoming games, definitely in Athens next month against UGA.
There doesn’t appear to be one single answer to the Vols offensive problems that have emerged over the past two games. Have opposing defenses caught up to Heupel’s up-tempo offense? Is Nico just going through a first year starter’s growing pains? Is the Vol offensive line overrated?
I read a comment by a Vol fan that the Tennessee passing attack appears to have given up on the middle of the field once again. I personally haven’t tuned in on that angle but now wondering if he’s onto something.
That wouldn’t have been accurate in early season games but has it evolved over the last two? As bad as I hate to, I may watch the Arkansas replay just to check where the Vol throws are going. As we painfully experienced last season, avoiding the middle of the field with the passing attack really made life easier for opposing defenses.
Whatever the reasons for the Tennessee offensive problems, they better figure it out quickly. With the Gators up next at Neyland this week and then the talented but now surprisingly Jekyll & Hyde bunch from Tuscaloosa coming in the following week, make no doubt both teams would love to help the Vols disappear from the Top 25 rankings and out of the playoff picture.
The Vols managed to stay in both Top 10’s following Saturday’s loss. The question now is can they stay there?
