Second half review: Tennessee

Ok, so I finally had the chance to watch the second half. I'll get to some specific observations, but I'll say this: Tennessee came to play Georgia. They had perfectly designed plays to leverage our youth and aggressiveness on defense. That being said, I felt like we played much better coverage defense. Granted Worley isn't the QB Mett or Shaw (or Boyd) is, but outside of the big wheel route completion on 4th down and that infuriating zone flood play, I thought we did ok on pass defense.

• I was too hard on the offensive line. In my mind, I fully expected them to look porous and see Murray running for his life. Instead, with only a couple of exceptions, he had time and was able to stay in the pocket. 
• Give the OLine huge kudos for their run blocking. Green got 98 of his 132 yards on 12 second half rushes. Some of that was very good lead blocking. Much of that was very effective offensive line play. It isn't hard to see why Chris Burnette was named SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week.
• Except Gates whiffing on both of Douglas' runs on the first Georgia drive of the second half. 
• We ran a seven man front. On offense. Very B1.5G if you ask me.
• JJ Damn Green. That. Is. All.
• Murray got away with a couple of throws, but overall he did an very good job with his decision making. 
• So why did we only attempt seven passing plays from the start of the second half until we got the ball back with 1:54 to play? Either Bobo felt we were doing such a good job running the ball so there was no downside to running it, or he got scared.
• Why did we run the ball with nine men in the box on 2nd and long? Anyone?
• But you have to love the toss sweep to Douglas with Hicks and Hall on lead blocks. That was quality stop me if you can't troll by Bobo.
• Against our defense, a lot of what Vols do in second half is exploit over pursuit on edge, especially using zone read. Gotta watch that with James Franklin this week.
• We did a much better job picking up the crossing route. Ramik seemed much less lost in coverage overall. 
• Still not convinced the first UT TD was in bounds, but I'm not sure what Corey Moore was waiting for on his coverage. He just let that guy run for 20 yards before even heading his way.
• FREAKING DELAY OF GAME PENALTY
• Give Jones credit. That toss on 4th and one was a great play call. We have great aggressiveness, but it kills us sometimes. That IS youth.
• Defense looked much better overall in coverage. 
• We, however, spent a bunch of time chasing guys because we either didn't contain rushing lanes or over pursued on the edge. Easily 2/3 of their rushing yards were gained without anyone touching them before they got 10+ yards. That is concerning, but fixable. 
• Probably.
• Then Aaron Murray happened. That drive to end regulation was just spectacular. 

I'm starting to come around to idea that this was a game the Vols have been preparing for for several weeks. Jones didn't leave any bullets in the chamber, that is for sure. There were two momentum turning points that went against us, and we survived both of them. The first came while we bogged down inside UT's 20 and came away empty. That helped spark the Vols. The second came with the most head scratching penalty I've seen in some time. If they punt it there, and we don't shitpants ourselves, we win going away. 

Instead, in both instances, The Vols scored TDs. We also gave them a TD, lost three offensive skill position starters and a punter, gave up a go ahead touchdown with under 2 minutes to play, and still walked out of Neyland Stadium with a win. No matter how you cut that, you have to respect both how we won and the head coach that kept his team in the game while many, many things were not going his way.

TD

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