Tennessee Football: 3 Takeaways from the Vols loss to Georgia

After yet another SEC loss for Tennessee, there were some positives. Here are three of the biggest takeaways I saw in the Vols loss to Georgia.

When the Tennessee Volunteers lost to the Georgia Bulldogs yesterday, it extended a very long and miserable losing streak in the SEC.  While it is always hard to find any positives after a loss, the Volunteers’ defense did show some improvement on defense.  Offensively, they proved there is still quite a bit of work to be done.

Defense

Although the Vols defense still has plenty of room to improve, they showed more fight against Georgia than they have all season.  In spite of the fact that they gave up 250 yards on the ground, the defense did show better ability to get to the quarterback.  The Volunteer defense was able to get 3 sacks on the day.  The pass rush was led by junior linebacker Darrell Taylor.  Taylor had 6 tackles, all three of the Vols’ sacks, and forced two fumbles.  In addition to the three sacks, the Tennessee defense also had four tackles for loss.

For the game, the Volunteers’ defense forced four fumbles.  Unfortunately, Georgia recovered all four of them.  If Tennessee expects to have any success this season, they have to start producing turnovers.  One of the fumbles actually resulted in a Georgia touchdown.

Offense

Tennessee continued to struggle on the offensive side of the ball.  Jarrett Guarantano only completed 13/21 passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns.  While it is positive he did not throw any interceptions, Guarantano only averaged 6.8 yards/completion.  If Tennessee has any plans of winning an SEC game this season, not only is the offensive line going to have block better but Offensive Coordinator Tyson Helton is going to have to open up the playbook and start taking some big shots downfield.

On the ground, the Vols ran the ball 25 times for only 66 yards.  Georgia, on the other hand, ran for 250 yards and five rushing touchdowns.  This allowed the Bulldogs to wear down the Volunteer defense and control the clock.

Silly Mistakes

While Tennessee’s defense continues to force fumbles, they have only recovered three so far this season.  Not only did the Vols not recover any of the four fumbles they caused, but they continued to shoot themselves in the foot with silly mistakes.  The Volunteers were penalized three different times for illegal procedure (there were 5 men in the backfield) while trying to punt the ball.  They were penalized for a total of 25 yards yesterday and that is something that can not happen, especially when they are already struggling to move the ball on offense and stop their opponent’s offense.

Once again this week, Jeremy Banks had an issue with ball security as he lost his second fumble of the season.  If this team expects to start finding success, they are going to have to start taking the ball away and stop giving the ball away.

When it was all said and done, losing 38-12 is never a good thing.  It does appear, however, this Tennessee team does indeed have some fight in them.  If they can continue to pull together as a team and start learning from their mistakes, Vol fans could start to see a glimmer of hope.  After yesterday, Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff should have something to build on, and heading into a bye week they should have plenty of time to get things figured out.