Let’s dive into the Week 5 advanced stats, courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
As a reminder, this is the PFF grading scale.
< 50 = Bad
50-60 = Average
70-80 = Above Average
80-84 = Good
85 and up = Very, very good.
With that … the Tennessee-Georgia advanced stats…
OFFENSIVE GRADES
Outside of the top group, Tennessee had just two other offensive players see at least 15 snaps Saturday: RB Tim Jordan (59.9) and WR Tyler Byrd (53.5).
Austin Pope was in on a single play vs. Georgia — the ill-fated 3rd-and-1 play action incompletion. Marcus Tatum (8 snaps), Riley Locklear (5 snaps) and Chance Hall, who saw his first action in three weeks with 9 snaps, all played fewer than 10 total snaps.
*** When you average just 2.6 yards per carry on 25 rushing attempts it makes sense that no one would grade out well … but a few of the run blocking grades continue to be really bad for several of Tennessee’s tight ends and interior lineman. Trey Smith had the best showing of any o-lineman (63.2), barely eclipsing Drew Richmond (61.2). The other three interior guys all finished with grades south of 56, with Carvin coming in the rear at 54.1. Carvin has shown flashes (especially in pass pro) during his freshman season, but Saturday was easily the worst game of his career. He couldn’t get movement in the run game and he was responsible for a sack, two hurries and a couple other pressures. His pass blocking grade of 22.2 was the worst by a UT lineman this season. Smith also finished in the red, allowing a pair of quarterback hits.
*** Outside of the offensive line, one of the reasons the offense is struggling right now is its getting very little production from the tight ends. Wood-Anderson was fine as a run blocker, but he was roasted in pass protection, allowing three hurries and a couple pressures. This is the second straight week he’s struggled in that role. He also finished with just one catch on several targets.
Meanwhile, Latrell Bumphus and Eli Wolf combined for 13 snaps and graded out as two of the worst run blockers on the team. Also concerning: Tyler Byrd, who previously has been effective as a physical edge blocker, graded out very poorly (50.1) in that role vs. Georgia.
*** While it *seemed* like Tennessee protected quarterback Jarrett Guaratano a little better on Saturday … the numbers don’t back up that assertion. Compared to the UF game, Guarantano faced the exact same number of pressures (9 each) and actually one more hurry (6) against Georgia. He was hit less though, as the Bulldogs only made contact with Guarantano four times including two sacks.
On the day, Guarantano averaged just 6.8 yards per attempt, but that number dipped to 2.7 when under pressure.
*** Tennessee’s tailbacks didn’t have much room to operate Saturday, but as a unit, they didn’t break tackles either. Jeremy Banks was the one exception, finishing with a remarkable stat line of six carries for 16 yards … but 17 yards gained after contact.
*** Finally, Tennessee did a nice job twice attacking UGA’s inside linebackers in pass coverage (Palmer and Chandler’s touchdowns), but Guarantano and the wideouts had very little success going up against Deandre Baker (2 PBUs on 4 targets), freshman Tyson Campbell or safeties JR Reed and Richard LeCounte.
DEFENESIVE GRADES
Other notable grades defensively: NT Emmitt Gooden (57.5), SDE Matthew Butler (55.0) and OLB Deandre Johnson (51.5)
*** With three sacks and two forced fumbles, Taylor had a pass rush grade of 90.8 — easily the best game by a UT defender all season. But as I noted in my review, Taylor didn’t get much help. Tuttle had the next best PRSH grade (60.6), while Kongbo was the only other defender to have more than one hurry, as he hit Fromm twice on two plays unimpeded to the quarterback.
*** Warrior played nearly every snap and finished with a solid grade, but this is why I’ve said before that the PFF data isn’t gospel but simply another valuable resource. This doesn’t pass the eye test. Warrior didn’t miss a tackle and and allowed just a single short completion on one target, but the junior wasn’t really around the ball all that much and missed several opportunities to make plays, IMO. Neither were factored into his grade, though.
*** Thompson and Buchanan played every single snap Saturday. The freshman had his struggles at times, getting targeted a team-high eight times, but he was really good in run support. Buchanan wasn’t great, but he appeared much more comfortable staying mostly inside in the nickel and dime defenses.
Flowers played his most snaps in weeks (35) and was the first safety off the bench Saturday. He rotated with Abernathy at safety in some nickel situations and then was the safety in all dime looks. He didn’t make a big impact on the game, but his spike in snaps was notable.
*** Tennessee was credited with 10 missed tackles, with Kirkland and Tuttle the only players to whiff more than once. Upon rewatch, I thought Buchanan left his feet at least twice, but he was only credited with a single missed tackle.
*** Considering Georgia ran 74 plays (including 50 rushes) the Vols didn’t rotate much up front. However, they did shuffle the four inside linebackers fairly often. Kirkland actually played the most snaps (50), but finished with the lowest grade on defense for the second consecutive week.
*** Kirkland had issues in run support (team-low grade of 33.7) and was fortunate in pass coverage, with two drops on both targets his way. D’Andre Swift muffed a potential huge screen pass and Terry Goodwin also let a quick seam throw go right through his hands.
The snap counts for Bituli (45), Ignont (27) and Sapp (25).
As a reminder, this is the PFF grading scale.
< 50 = Bad
50-60 = Average
70-80 = Above Average
80-84 = Good
85 and up = Very, very good.
With that … the Tennessee-Georgia advanced stats…
OFFENSIVE GRADES
- RB Ty Chandler (72.2)
- WR Marquez Callaway (69.4)
- C Ryan Johnson (62.2)
- WR Josh Palmer (61.7)
- WR Jauan Jennings (60.6)
- RT Drew Richmond (60.6)
- LG Jahmir Johnson (60.4)
- LT Trey Smith (57.7)
- TE Dominick Wood-Anderson (57.4)
- WR Brandon Johnson (53.9)
- QB Jarrett Guarantano (53.2)
- RG Jerome Carvin (50.8)
Outside of the top group, Tennessee had just two other offensive players see at least 15 snaps Saturday: RB Tim Jordan (59.9) and WR Tyler Byrd (53.5).
Austin Pope was in on a single play vs. Georgia — the ill-fated 3rd-and-1 play action incompletion. Marcus Tatum (8 snaps), Riley Locklear (5 snaps) and Chance Hall, who saw his first action in three weeks with 9 snaps, all played fewer than 10 total snaps.
*** When you average just 2.6 yards per carry on 25 rushing attempts it makes sense that no one would grade out well … but a few of the run blocking grades continue to be really bad for several of Tennessee’s tight ends and interior lineman. Trey Smith had the best showing of any o-lineman (63.2), barely eclipsing Drew Richmond (61.2). The other three interior guys all finished with grades south of 56, with Carvin coming in the rear at 54.1. Carvin has shown flashes (especially in pass pro) during his freshman season, but Saturday was easily the worst game of his career. He couldn’t get movement in the run game and he was responsible for a sack, two hurries and a couple other pressures. His pass blocking grade of 22.2 was the worst by a UT lineman this season. Smith also finished in the red, allowing a pair of quarterback hits.
*** Outside of the offensive line, one of the reasons the offense is struggling right now is its getting very little production from the tight ends. Wood-Anderson was fine as a run blocker, but he was roasted in pass protection, allowing three hurries and a couple pressures. This is the second straight week he’s struggled in that role. He also finished with just one catch on several targets.
Meanwhile, Latrell Bumphus and Eli Wolf combined for 13 snaps and graded out as two of the worst run blockers on the team. Also concerning: Tyler Byrd, who previously has been effective as a physical edge blocker, graded out very poorly (50.1) in that role vs. Georgia.
*** While it *seemed* like Tennessee protected quarterback Jarrett Guaratano a little better on Saturday … the numbers don’t back up that assertion. Compared to the UF game, Guarantano faced the exact same number of pressures (9 each) and actually one more hurry (6) against Georgia. He was hit less though, as the Bulldogs only made contact with Guarantano four times including two sacks.
On the day, Guarantano averaged just 6.8 yards per attempt, but that number dipped to 2.7 when under pressure.
*** Tennessee’s tailbacks didn’t have much room to operate Saturday, but as a unit, they didn’t break tackles either. Jeremy Banks was the one exception, finishing with a remarkable stat line of six carries for 16 yards … but 17 yards gained after contact.
*** Finally, Tennessee did a nice job twice attacking UGA’s inside linebackers in pass coverage (Palmer and Chandler’s touchdowns), but Guarantano and the wideouts had very little success going up against Deandre Baker (2 PBUs on 4 targets), freshman Tyson Campbell or safeties JR Reed and Richard LeCounte.
DEFENESIVE GRADES
- OLB Darrell Taylor (78.8)
- LS Trevon Flowers (71.0)
- LS Nigel Warrior (70.1)
- CB Alontae Taylor (68.1)
- Quart’e Sapp (65.1)
- RS Micah Abernathy (69.9)
- DT Alexis Johnson (63.9)
- CB Baylen Buchanan (62.9)
- MLB Daniel Bituli (58.2)
- OLB Jonathan Kongbo (56.3)
- MLB Will Ignont (56.0)
- DT Shy Tuttle (53.4)
- CB Bryce Thompson (50.3)
- DE Kyle Phillips (47.7)
- MLB Darrin Kirkland Jr. (40.1)
Other notable grades defensively: NT Emmitt Gooden (57.5), SDE Matthew Butler (55.0) and OLB Deandre Johnson (51.5)
*** With three sacks and two forced fumbles, Taylor had a pass rush grade of 90.8 — easily the best game by a UT defender all season. But as I noted in my review, Taylor didn’t get much help. Tuttle had the next best PRSH grade (60.6), while Kongbo was the only other defender to have more than one hurry, as he hit Fromm twice on two plays unimpeded to the quarterback.
*** Warrior played nearly every snap and finished with a solid grade, but this is why I’ve said before that the PFF data isn’t gospel but simply another valuable resource. This doesn’t pass the eye test. Warrior didn’t miss a tackle and and allowed just a single short completion on one target, but the junior wasn’t really around the ball all that much and missed several opportunities to make plays, IMO. Neither were factored into his grade, though.
*** Thompson and Buchanan played every single snap Saturday. The freshman had his struggles at times, getting targeted a team-high eight times, but he was really good in run support. Buchanan wasn’t great, but he appeared much more comfortable staying mostly inside in the nickel and dime defenses.
Flowers played his most snaps in weeks (35) and was the first safety off the bench Saturday. He rotated with Abernathy at safety in some nickel situations and then was the safety in all dime looks. He didn’t make a big impact on the game, but his spike in snaps was notable.
*** Tennessee was credited with 10 missed tackles, with Kirkland and Tuttle the only players to whiff more than once. Upon rewatch, I thought Buchanan left his feet at least twice, but he was only credited with a single missed tackle.
*** Considering Georgia ran 74 plays (including 50 rushes) the Vols didn’t rotate much up front. However, they did shuffle the four inside linebackers fairly often. Kirkland actually played the most snaps (50), but finished with the lowest grade on defense for the second consecutive week.
*** Kirkland had issues in run support (team-low grade of 33.7) and was fortunate in pass coverage, with two drops on both targets his way. D’Andre Swift muffed a potential huge screen pass and Terry Goodwin also let a quick seam throw go right through his hands.
The snap counts for Bituli (45), Ignont (27) and Sapp (25).
