The Day After

Baton Rouge, La. — Tennessee was complete in all three phases of the game as the Vols manhandled LSU 40-13 to go to 5-0 on the season and set up a huge match up with Alabama.   We review the Vols victory with The Day After.

Hot and Not

HOT

Byron Young — Tennessee’s entire defensive front was terrific on Saturday, but Byron Young got rolling the way we thought he would to start the year. Young had 2.5 sacks and 5 tackles. He gave LSU’s offensive line fits and got a huge assist from the interior of the line which set up some of the pressure with their stunts and twists on multiple occasions. 

Run defense  — LSU rushed for 55 yards on 28 carries. Tennessee had four tackles for loss on running plays. The defensive front had 22 tackles, not counting five sacks. That’s a crazy number of tackles and a tip of the cap to Rodney Garner. The old cagey veteran is doing what he always does, which is develop veterans. 

Josh Heupel — The head coach has done a lot of really good things since his been at Tennessee. The best? He’s had his team ready to play every week and the bigger the game the looser his team seems to play. The “rip it” mentality has helped this team. 

The offensive line — You got no Gerald Mincey. LSU has been good against the run and have disrupted the quarterback all year. Tennessee gave up no sacks and only one big hit on Hendon Hooker. The Vols rushed for 263 yards averaging 5.4 yards a carry. The offensive line got push all day long and was really good in short yardage situations. 

NOT

Zone defense — If you are going to be critical of the defense, the secondary is still a struggle. They still struggle with slants and with zone coverage. The coverage windows were not as big against LSU as they were against Florida, but they have to continue to grow and improve. It will be interesting to see if Dee Williams helps more in the coming weeks. 

Red zone touchdowns — If you are going to critique the offense in a 40-13 win, it could have been a bigger rout if the Vols could have finished better in the red zone. The Vols were 6-for-6 in getting points, but had to settle for three field goals in those six trips inside the LSU 20. Tennessee has been great in the red zone all year, but you if you are going to upset teams like Alabama and Georgia then you can’t settle for field goals. 

Defining moments

Opening kickoff— Blame it on the early morning kickoff if you want, but the tone of the football game was set when LSU fumbled the opening kickoff and Tennessee’s Will Brooks recovered it setting the Vols up at the Tiger 27 and stealing a possession. 

LSU 4th and 10 with less than a minute in the first half — I have no idea what Brian Kelly was thinking. With 30 seconds left, Kelly went for it on 4th and 10 at the Tennessee 45. The Vols got a sack. They go 32 yards in :23 seconds to kick a 32 yard field goal and steal three points making it a 23-7 half time lead.

Opening possession of the 2nd half — Against Florida, Tennessee won the middle 8 (last four minutes of the first half and first four of the second half) with two touchdowns. Tennessee did the same at LSU, stealing three before half then going on an eight play, 76 yard touchdown drive to open the second half and essentially end the game at 30-7

Heupel’s celebration — A tip of the cap to the Big Orange faithful. They have fallen in love with this team and with what Heupel is doing. They showed up in force on Saturday and had a heck of a celebration to close the game. It was a nice gesture to by Heupel to high five and thank many of the fans personally when the game was over.

“Our fanbase…I can’t say enough about it,” Heupel said. “Phenomenal. Driving in and seeing all the orange, getting in and seeing it everywhere inside the stadium, I just appreciate our fan base. Our players do too. They feel that energy and excitement, so thank you.”

Inside the numbers

27 — Number of tackles by the Vol defensive line. A crazy number. It paints the picture of the how much they controlled the line of scrimmage. 

263 — Number of rushing yards by the Vols. LSU came into the game giving up just over 100 yards a game and had not surrendered a 100 yards to a tailback. Jabari Small had 127 yards and two touchdowns. 

0 — Number of 4th down conversions by LSU. The Tigers were 0-3 on fourth down and Tennessee turned that into a total 17 points on the following possessions. 

8 — Number of consecutive games that the Vol offense has scored 30 points or more

Gameball

You could give it to a bunch of guys. Bru McCoy, Jabari Small, Byron Young, and on and on. 

Tennessee is going score every week. This offense just works, but the Vol defense was better on Saturday thanks to the play of the defensive line. 

I don’t remember the last time a defensive front had 27 tackles including five sacks in a game. Just a crazy number. Kudos to Tim Banks for his plan and play calls. The stunts worked early and Banks rode it to great success all day long. 

So my game ball goes to the defensive front.

Biggest concern/question moving forward

The secondary has to continue to grow and improve. They were better, but they have to get their hands on the ball more and be more disruptive. Dee Williams has to work into shape and get some reps at corner. 

Offensively, touchdowns not field goals. 

This team is far from perfect and there are big challenges coming, but the Vols are a team getting better and they need to continue to get better every day. 

Heupel likes this team. He loves the way they work. They have to continue to do that as they hit the back half of the season.