- Matthew Butler is going to make money playing football — It’s not just the volume of snaps that Butler is playing that is impressive. And trust me it’s impressive. Butler has 148 snaps the last two weeks. After playing 78 snaps against Ole Miss, Butler played 70 snaps against Alabama and had 9 tackles. He has 6.5 TFL’s and he’s playing relentless. He’s getting better weekly and the NFL is noticing. He’s improved his flexibility and his technique has improved under Rodney Garner.
2. Running the football is going to be hard the next two weeks, Tennessee is going to have to be creative — Tennessee struggled greatly against the Tide running the ball. Jabari Small had just 8 yards on 7 carries. Limited Tiyon Evans had 30 yards on 7 carries and Hendon Hooker finished with 26 yards on 12 carries. All told, the Vols averaged 2.5 yards a rush and were stoned on 3rd and 2 or less 4 out of 5 times. At times on rewatch Tennessee was simply overwhelmed. Getting Cade Mays back will help for sure, but the ground game is not going to be easy for the Vol offense the next two weeks. Georgia is second in the country giving up just over 63 yards a game and Kentucky is 27th giving up 119 yards a game. Of the 833 Kentucky has given up 166 were to Georgia two weeks ago.
Point is that the Vols are going to have their challenges running the football which is why Josh Heupel has to get creative offensively. Jabari Small had 5 catches for 39 yards, Jalin Hyatt had 3 for 14 in plays that were essentially extensions of the run game. A couple of times we saw Velus Jones lined up in the backfield. Running the football is a must to be successful. The Vols couldn’t Saturday night as the Tide’s front seven were smothering. Tennessee is going to have to be creative in order to run the ball.
3. Third and long is killing this defense — It’s just maddening what teams are getting done on 3rd and long. Ole Miss had a field day and Alabama found success as well. They obviously hit the big play on 3rd and 15 where, they got the match up they wanted and simply outran the defense. The defense had Alabama’s offense in 3rd and 7+ 11 times Saturday night and Alabama converted 7 of them.
Tennessee is not good enough to allow teams to extend drives in third and long situations but Tim Banks has a dilemma. If he brings extra people he risk giving up the big play. If he doesn’t he can’t pressure the quarterback regularly and they can’t stop a quarterback scramble.
Upon rewatch, the secondary was pretty solid in coverage most of the night, but on third and long they couldn’t get off the field. I counted multiple times were Bryce Young had 5+ seconds to survey the field. This defense has played much better than I expected. If they were better on 3rd and long they would be really good on defense. Over the last two weeks Tennessee has given up 28 3rd and 4th down conversions and 18 of them have been 3rd and 7+.
4. How can you not like this team — Watching them live, it’s clear they are playing hard. Watching it on a rewatch where you can spend time focusing on specific plays or players it impressive how hard this team is playing.
And on top of that guys banged up have showed their grit by playing. Hendon Hooker wasn’t 100% and neither were Tyion Evans or Cooper Mays, but they battle as they have every week. They are far from perfect and they made a ton of assignment errors and missed too many tackles, but this team, as shorthanded as they are, shows up every week and empties the tank. They are a long way from where they need to be, but it’s easy to see why Josh Heupel likes this team. They have a ton of grit about them. Former players recognize it as well and many have tweet about their fight the last few weeks. Heupel needs recruits to feel the same way as he continues to try and build this roster.
5. Tim Banks and his defensive staff is having a helluva year —That may sound crazy coming off a 52-24 loss, but I fully believed this defense was going to be awful when we saw them in spring practice because they were terrible. They had some guys beat up in the spring and Banks was just piecing his scheme together, but his unit is growing playing well for who they are. They just half to learn to finish and get off the field on third down.
Their identity is clear they are going to do stop the run first and they are going to attack. Two more good running games are next on the schedule so we will see how this team can hold up after giving up 203 yards at Alabama. That number would have been much better if they had tackled better. I thought they missed more tackles Saturday night then they had missed previously.
6. Open space is hard on Tennessee’s linebackers — Jeremy Banks leads the team in tackles and personal foul penalties. His penalty Saturday night was his worst of the year. Banks finished with a team high 12 tackles and Aaron Beasley finished with 7 tackles including one for loss. Pro Football Focus also had Beasley with 5 missed tackles which was a team high.
But Tennessee’s linebackers struggled in open space. Bryce Young, who’s really quick, made Beasley and others look silly at times in the open field. The linebackers have issues in pass coverage and Alabama did a good job challenging the defense down the middle of the field and with the backs out of the back field which put plenty of stress on the linebackers.
Bryce Young was 15 of 16 for 116 yards and 2 TD’s on middle of the field throws of less than 10 yards of the ball being in the air. Not all of that is on the linebackers but a good bit of it was.
7. Penalty numbers show alot — I will admit there’s a couple false starts where I didn’t see movement but this offense continues to hurt themselves with penalties. In Tennessee’s 4 losses they have been flagged 41 times for 365 yards. In their 4 wins, it’s 10 flags for 110 yards. Bottom line is that Tennessee isn’t good enough against good opponents to overcome self inflicted wounds. The offense had five false starts on Saturday night and that’s 14 of those for the season. The also have an illegal snap and illegal formation penalty on offense this season.
The reality is that this team with it’s protection issues can afford to be in long yardage situations regardless of what down it is. If this team is going to have a chance at 7 wins then they have to clean up their self inflicted errors.
8. 35+ is the number — Tennessee’s defense is better than I thought they would be. The have to get off the field more, but the reality is with Josh Heupel’s offense the defense is going to play a lot which means with their depth issues and concerns a lot of guys are going to play snaps. Through 8 games, the defense has played 629 snaps which is almost 79 snaps a game. The offense has played 613 snaps. With this style of play the defense plays a lot if you can’t make first downs. Those increased snaps means an increased chance of points allowed. I get this is Heupel’s approach and I am not criticizing it, but with that approach you have to score. An to give yourself the best chance to win, you gotta show 35 points a game. Tennessee’s offense just has to be more productive in order to win the type of games they are playing. They aren’t going to pitch shutouts on defense. Against Ole Miss, the defense gave the offense 4 chances to take the lead in the second half. In the third quarter against Alabama, the defense got two punts and gave the offense a chance. Against Pitt, they gave the offense a chance. Tennessee’s offense has to score more points.
9. Tennessee has to be more aggressive in the return game—I don’t know if it’s by design or choice, but I will find out why Velus Jones is fair catching kickoffs with regularity. Jones is a weapon with the ball in his hands. Saturday night the couldn’t get him he ball with any regularity. Maybe he struggled to get open. They lined him up in the backfield a couple of times but he had no returns against Alabama and I thought there was one or two that were plenty returnable. I would like to see Jones being more aggressive back here.
10. TGFAOD — Thank God for an open date — This team needs rest. Yes they need to grow and improve, but more importantly they need to heal rest and get their legs back quickly.
The snap counts are mounting for a roster that’s not nearly good enough. They need Cade Mays healthy. An option with K’rojhn Calbert would be a big lift in November.
Tiyon Evans needs to get his ankle well and they need to get Theo Jackson well.
