This morning I decided to face my fears and analyze our O line play from this past Thursday knowing it would not be pleasant. Here are my takeaways (they are long):
(1) Tennessee did not get manhandled upfront. The majority of penetration or short yardage plays came from missed assignments. A pulling guard going for the read key instead of hugging the center/opposite guard to climb to the backers; pulling guards doubling down on a blocked man while their assignment (the linebacker) makes the play; poor communication on double teams, and poor leverage/balance on assignments. Extremely fixable issues.
(2) Coleman Thomas had his worst game as a Vol but I don't think he'll repeat it. I don't know if it was cross-training out at tackle. I don't know if his high-ankle sprain really affected him that much; I just don't know. But after watching the tape, Coleman made at least 10 uncharacteristic errors in the game Thursday. On Tennessee's first offensive drive, he missed his assignment three plays in a row. He was beaten by the nose guard at least four separate times and they used the same move, a swim, either left or right. He was beaten because he lunged at the nose guard, getting his pads over his center of balance.
He also was mentally unsound. A center should NEVER have a false start penalty; that just makes no sense. But most disturbing, on the third down hitch route conversion to Kamara, the rest of the O line steps back in pass pro and Thomas releases downfield. If the refs had been on top of this, it could have been lineman downfield. That play was truly inexplicable. I don't know where his head was at or whether he had taken too many painkillers, but he was mentally and physically bad. These mistakes are easily correctable, and I think he deserves the opportunity to correct them v. VT, but you have to wonder what was going on.
(3) Jashon forgot what a pulling guard does. After watching the tape, App State didn't do that many problematic things on the D Line; at least, they should have not been problematic for our veteran O line given the numerous fronts they've seen. On one of Dobbs' few runs, Thomas, Weisman, Richmond, and Kendrick nail their blocks. Jashon is supposed to pull and seal the linebacker in the A gap, leaving Dobbs one on one with the weak side line backer, who like the read key, will be frozen by the fake. Instead, Jashon goes straight for the read key. My only thought is he believed it was a blitzing linebacker, but that still makes little sense given that for that play he would not go out that far to block someone.
(4) All pass pro pressure came from center/guard or center/back exchanges. Coleman has to be better next week in getting a good kick back and base. He either got turned sideways or got off balance which led to penetration. In addition, Hurd has got to use his hands and sustain his block, which I know he'll do. Nonetheless, I expect the pass pro to get better next week, and I expect Thomas to play a role in it.
(5) Mahoney did not have his unit ready. There was nothing special about what App State did up front. The group looked like it didn't prepare very much or at least very well for App State's defense. I'm wondering if they began the install for VT before finishing with App State, or if the plays we saw on Thursday were different blocking schemes than the O line regularly uses, or perhaps used a different terminology. It really doesn't make sense otherwise. This unit has never had road pavers but it has been good at getting its assignments correct. After watching the tape, they truly could not have played worse.
Conclusion: While it looked really bad, I believe that all the issues we saw are correctable and likely have been or will be corrected by midweek. I'm not at practice so I don't know, but after playing college ball, these were the types of mistakes that you know you can fix. It's one thing to get manhandled and abused, it's another to just not have the right assignment, take the right first step or not have the right pad leverage. I expect us to be able to dominate the LOS on Saturday after fixing these mistakes.
Here's a link to Offensive play-by-play:
(1) Tennessee did not get manhandled upfront. The majority of penetration or short yardage plays came from missed assignments. A pulling guard going for the read key instead of hugging the center/opposite guard to climb to the backers; pulling guards doubling down on a blocked man while their assignment (the linebacker) makes the play; poor communication on double teams, and poor leverage/balance on assignments. Extremely fixable issues.
(2) Coleman Thomas had his worst game as a Vol but I don't think he'll repeat it. I don't know if it was cross-training out at tackle. I don't know if his high-ankle sprain really affected him that much; I just don't know. But after watching the tape, Coleman made at least 10 uncharacteristic errors in the game Thursday. On Tennessee's first offensive drive, he missed his assignment three plays in a row. He was beaten by the nose guard at least four separate times and they used the same move, a swim, either left or right. He was beaten because he lunged at the nose guard, getting his pads over his center of balance.
He also was mentally unsound. A center should NEVER have a false start penalty; that just makes no sense. But most disturbing, on the third down hitch route conversion to Kamara, the rest of the O line steps back in pass pro and Thomas releases downfield. If the refs had been on top of this, it could have been lineman downfield. That play was truly inexplicable. I don't know where his head was at or whether he had taken too many painkillers, but he was mentally and physically bad. These mistakes are easily correctable, and I think he deserves the opportunity to correct them v. VT, but you have to wonder what was going on.
(3) Jashon forgot what a pulling guard does. After watching the tape, App State didn't do that many problematic things on the D Line; at least, they should have not been problematic for our veteran O line given the numerous fronts they've seen. On one of Dobbs' few runs, Thomas, Weisman, Richmond, and Kendrick nail their blocks. Jashon is supposed to pull and seal the linebacker in the A gap, leaving Dobbs one on one with the weak side line backer, who like the read key, will be frozen by the fake. Instead, Jashon goes straight for the read key. My only thought is he believed it was a blitzing linebacker, but that still makes little sense given that for that play he would not go out that far to block someone.
(4) All pass pro pressure came from center/guard or center/back exchanges. Coleman has to be better next week in getting a good kick back and base. He either got turned sideways or got off balance which led to penetration. In addition, Hurd has got to use his hands and sustain his block, which I know he'll do. Nonetheless, I expect the pass pro to get better next week, and I expect Thomas to play a role in it.
(5) Mahoney did not have his unit ready. There was nothing special about what App State did up front. The group looked like it didn't prepare very much or at least very well for App State's defense. I'm wondering if they began the install for VT before finishing with App State, or if the plays we saw on Thursday were different blocking schemes than the O line regularly uses, or perhaps used a different terminology. It really doesn't make sense otherwise. This unit has never had road pavers but it has been good at getting its assignments correct. After watching the tape, they truly could not have played worse.
Conclusion: While it looked really bad, I believe that all the issues we saw are correctable and likely have been or will be corrected by midweek. I'm not at practice so I don't know, but after playing college ball, these were the types of mistakes that you know you can fix. It's one thing to get manhandled and abused, it's another to just not have the right assignment, take the right first step or not have the right pad leverage. I expect us to be able to dominate the LOS on Saturday after fixing these mistakes.
Here's a link to Offensive play-by-play:
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