Tennessee seemed to be back to its ol’ fashioned ways against Florida on Saturday. That turned out to be just enough.

Tennessee beat Florida 23-17 after the Vols allowed the game to slip into overtime, but still kept their College Football Playoff hopes alive in Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.

The Vols were fast and on the attack to begin the game. That didn’t last long. Win or lose, it is clear Tennessee has issues on offense, which accounted for just 312 yards against Florida, which was ranked 15th in the SEC in total defense, averaging 395 yards allowed per game.

Looking for reason why the Vols were so ineffective in the scoring department? Look no further than the offensive tackle position, which the Vols struggled with throughout the game and has reared its ugly head in Tennessee’s last two games, a win at Oklahoma and a loss to Arkansas last week.

The Vols tried to be explosive, but poor play by Tennessee’s tackles, primarily left tackle Lance Heard, stopped the Vols’ offense time and time again. That wasn’t the plan. The Vols were trying to right the ship and get it moving – fast.

Tennessee was so fast in their uptempo offense early in the game that the officials struggled just to keep up. The game was held up just so the officials could keep the chains in place. However, other miscues cut blocked the Vols’ offense throughout the game and ended any notion that Tennessee could run the Gators out of town.

Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava turned the ball over during a botched exchange on an option play with running back Dylan Sampson. Iamaleava’s ball handling has been a consistent issue this season. 

The redshirt freshman fumbled twice, losing both, against Oklahoma. Iamaleava also said the ball was slipping from his hands when he ran out of bounds with no time left on the final play of the Vols’ loss to Arkansas. Then, there was an interception thrown against Florida that was into coverage and looked eerily like an interception that Iamaleava threw against North Carolina State earlier this season. 

While Iamaleava needs to get a grip, Sampson is proving to be the most lethal weapon in the Vols’ offensive backfield. The junior rushed for 112 yards on 27 attempts and three touchdowns against the Gators. 

Where would Iamaleava be without Sampson, who has also established himself as a team leader, which was recently evident in his strong comments following the loss to the Razorbacks? Not in a good place.

By all accounts, Iamaleava seems to be regressing. His offensive line is surely partly to blame if he has lost any confidence in his game, which certainly appears to be the case. Iamaleava completed 16 of 26 passes for just 169 yards, threw one interception, looks unsure in and out of the pocket and too often stares down his intended receiver.

The self-inflicted wounds weren’t just on Iamaleava. The offensive line continued to hurt the Vols as John Campbell Jr., and Heard were called for holding penalties in the first quarter. Both plays undermined drives that could have put Tennessee in the driver’s seat against the Gators. Heard continually struggled to protect Iamaleava to the point in which the topic was trending on Twitter.

Let that sink in. Tennessee’s tackle play was so bad, with Heard in particular, that it received more social media attention than Iamaleava’s sub-par play, which was pretty bad.

The Vols’ offense was more creative early in the game with men often going in motion before the snap and receiver Bru McCoy running a sweep. There also seemed to be some called runs and rollouts for Iamaleava, who picked up one yard on eight carries, that hadn’t been as much a part of the Vols game plan before Saturday.

Slot receiver Squirrel White was clearly the Vols’ focal point early in the game. The junior caught three passes for 53 yards before leaving the game after diving for an overthrown pass by Iamaleava. That wasn’t the only one.

Iamaleava missed a wide-open Chas Nimrod as he was streaking down the field. He and White had both blown by Florida’s defense before Iamaleava just flat out missed them with overthrows that weren’t even close to catchable. Iamaleava certainly hasn’t been perfect this season, but those throws call into question his accuracy, which was supposed to be a given.

Linebacker Keenan Pili leaving with a knee injury in the first quarter certainly didn’t help the Vols. The middle of the field seemed vacant at times with backup Jeremiah Telander in Pili’s place. However, the Vols’ defense isn’t to blame for Tennessee’s shortcomings this season. The Vols held the Gators to just 361 yards with little support from Iamaleava and crew. The highlight play was a forced fumble and recovery by Vols’ EDGE rusher James Pearce Jr., inside Tennessee’s one-yard line.  

However, the Vols’ offense has to be the major takeaway from the Florida game. The Vols haven’t been shutout in consecutive halves as they have been in the last two games since 2008 when Tennessee was blanked by South Carolina and Wyoming in the first two quarters. That led to former coach Phillip Fulmer’s firing during the season.

Before Sampson’s six-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, Tennessee had failed to score a point in five of its previous six quarters of football. The Vols had failed to score a touchdown in seven of the last eight quarters before Sampson found the endzone.

Tennessee’s chances, per ESPN, are now 54-percent to make the College Football Playoff. With Alabama coming up next week, those odds could drop just like the confidence that Tennessee fans have in Iamaleava to lead the Vols to a championship anytime soon.