Volquest mini-pod: Instant reaction to an upset
It was a crazy day in the SEC and fourth ranked Tennessee was part of the carnage, falling 19-14 to Arkansas on a night when the Vols’ offense struggled mightily.
Tennessee was shut out in the first half, and were lucky to only be down 3-0 after managing just 76 yards of total offense in the first 30 minutes of play.
Arkansas moved the ball up and down the field in the first two quarters, piling up 221 yards of total offense and possessing the ball for 21:10 of the first 30 minutes, but the Razorbacks couldn’t find the end zone.
Tennessee stopped Arkansas’ opening drive on the one yard line, forcing a field goal. Later in the second quarter the Vols’ defense came up with a fourth down stop on its own 20 yard line to once again turn the Hogs’ away.
The Vols found some life to start the second half, scoring touchdowns on their first two offensive possessions of the third quarter to seize momentum and take a 14-3 lead.
Tennessee couldn’t sustain the momentum though, despite the fact that Arkansas’ starting quarterback Taylen Green was knocked out of the game early in the fourth quarter.
His back-up, Malichi Singleton struggled on his first couple of drives, but found some mojo late.
Arkansas took over on its own 41 with 3:20 left in the game and Singleton manufactured a four play touchdown drive that he capped off with an 11-yard keeper with 1:17 left to play.
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Tennessee had two timeouts and enough time to make something happen.
It looked like the Vols might find a miracle when Nico Iamaleava hit Donte’ Thornton for a 42 yard gain off of a scramble to the Arkansas 25 yard line with :22 left.
The Vols couldn’t pull off the comeback though as Iamaleava scrambled out of bounds on fourth down as the clock ran out.
It was a wasted opportunity for Tennessee to really help itself in the SEC race on a day when Alabama and Missouri both lost on the road in conference play.
The Vols hurt themselves with 10 penalties on the day for 60 yards, including an egregious running into the kicker call on from Jordan Ross that kept an Arkansas drive alive in the fourth quarter that eventually resulted in a field goal.
Tennessee returns home next week to face Florida before hosting Alabama.