The Vols won a game against Pittsburgh that they would’ve lost a year ago.
Tennessee fell behind by 10 points early on and could muster little offense and the defense was being tossed around like a toy by the Pitt offense.
Tennessee has been a first quarter team since the new regime arrived. The second quarter games have been Heupel ‘s nemesis. Yesterday we saw our coaching staff on both sides of the ball row and show that they were capable of making in-game adjustments without needing to wait till half time to make them.
The defense came away with a big interception and that’s just what we needed to get some momentum going to kick start our offense into gear. Had we given up a touchdown on that drive the game may very well have gotten out of hand.
The second quarter of the game went a long ways to determine the offenses of outcome of the game as we took a lead that we were able to nurse for most of second half.
I thought that the offensive playcalling in the second half was not very good. Worse was we fumbled on a run play, allowed a blocked punt, and fumbled a punt. Three major gaffes that a year ago Tennessee would not have survived.
Our defense was very aggressive and made some big plays down the stretch to save the game. For those who criticized Tennessee’s lack of a pass rush a week ago, they have to admit that they did not pay attention that Ball State did what they could to get rid of the ball early whereas Pitt thought that they could hold off the Tennessee pass rush while they took five steps drops. Tennessee knocked out the Pitt starting QB at the half and they made their back up quarterback a one legged quarterback midway through the third quarter. The Tennessee Defense used various blitzes and camped out in the Pittsburgh backfield the entire second half.
Offensively Bru McCoy had some big plays yesterday. He only had four receptions but every yard of them were big plays. Jaylin Hyatt Had a big game as Tennessee used him as an extended version of the run game with quick hitters that he would turn into 7-8 yard gains regularly. Cedric Tillman was a stud on the field yesterday. He had four drops of one of them almost cost us the game. In the end he made the big TD catch that won the game. Stud.
So just think about where we were a year ago and where we are now. This team is showing that they are growing both on the coaching staff and on the field. There’s no way we would’ve overcome our mistakes a year ago.
There is a lot to clean up from this game moving forward. Each game will present different issues that will have to be dealt with but Ball securities gonna have to be put thing that they really focus on.
As Dr Curmudgeon said, Game ball goes to the defense.
Tennessee fell behind by 10 points early on and could muster little offense and the defense was being tossed around like a toy by the Pitt offense.
Tennessee has been a first quarter team since the new regime arrived. The second quarter games have been Heupel ‘s nemesis. Yesterday we saw our coaching staff on both sides of the ball row and show that they were capable of making in-game adjustments without needing to wait till half time to make them.
The defense came away with a big interception and that’s just what we needed to get some momentum going to kick start our offense into gear. Had we given up a touchdown on that drive the game may very well have gotten out of hand.
The second quarter of the game went a long ways to determine the offenses of outcome of the game as we took a lead that we were able to nurse for most of second half.
I thought that the offensive playcalling in the second half was not very good. Worse was we fumbled on a run play, allowed a blocked punt, and fumbled a punt. Three major gaffes that a year ago Tennessee would not have survived.
Our defense was very aggressive and made some big plays down the stretch to save the game. For those who criticized Tennessee’s lack of a pass rush a week ago, they have to admit that they did not pay attention that Ball State did what they could to get rid of the ball early whereas Pitt thought that they could hold off the Tennessee pass rush while they took five steps drops. Tennessee knocked out the Pitt starting QB at the half and they made their back up quarterback a one legged quarterback midway through the third quarter. The Tennessee Defense used various blitzes and camped out in the Pittsburgh backfield the entire second half.
Offensively Bru McCoy had some big plays yesterday. He only had four receptions but every yard of them were big plays. Jaylin Hyatt Had a big game as Tennessee used him as an extended version of the run game with quick hitters that he would turn into 7-8 yard gains regularly. Cedric Tillman was a stud on the field yesterday. He had four drops of one of them almost cost us the game. In the end he made the big TD catch that won the game. Stud.
So just think about where we were a year ago and where we are now. This team is showing that they are growing both on the coaching staff and on the field. There’s no way we would’ve overcome our mistakes a year ago.
There is a lot to clean up from this game moving forward. Each game will present different issues that will have to be dealt with but Ball securities gonna have to be put thing that they really focus on.
As Dr Curmudgeon said, Game ball goes to the defense.
