Tennessee Football: Let’s talk about this defense continuing to dominate
Tennessee football’s defense is one of the main reasons Tennessee is where it is right now and they came in the clutch again against Kentucky.
The Kentucky Wildcats dominated the first quarter of its game against the Tennessee Volunteers. It looked like they were on the way to putting up 40 against the Vols with Tennessee trying to keep up.
The Tennessee football defense couldn’t stop the Wildcats to save their life through the first quarter. Kentucky had 119 total yards and two touchdowns at the end of the first quarter compared to Tennessee’s three yards and zero points in the first quarter.
Believe it or not, those 13 points that Kentucky scored in the first quarter would be the only points they get all game. Tennessee’s defense shut down Lynn Bowden Jr. and the Kentucky offense after that.
Kentucky totaled 219 yards in the final three quarters with zero total points. Tennessee’s defense holding the Cats to 73 yards per quarter allowed the Vols’ offense to figure things out and put points on the board.
After the two touchdown drives to start the game, Kentucky’s drives went punt, interception, punt, punt, downs, downs, downs.
You could list off multiple different players on Tennessee’s defense as to why Kentucky didn’t get in the endzone any after those first two drives, but one player that stepped up big time is Daniel Bituli.
That man has been on fire recently. He had 19 tackles against Kentucky for the second-most in a game in his career. Bituli was the one that made a big goal-line stand to prevent Kentucky from scoring.
Bowden Jr. ran the ball from the two-yard line, and when he turned the corner on the outside, Bituli was there to greet him, and there was no chance Bowden was getting into the end zone at that point.
Bituli hasn’t shown up just for the Kentucky game. He’s been playing with a vengeance for most of the season. He has 60 total tackles on the season and has two double-digit games so far this season.
It’s hard to give all the credit to one person for the defensive performance that Tennessee put on this past Saturday. A lot of players stepped up on Tennessee’s defensive line and made plays that they weren’t expected to make a few weeks ago.
If you don’t study the roster, then there are probably a few players you saw make plays that you have never heard of. You know their name now, though, and I don’t think they’ll be going away this season.
Jeremy Pruitt has taken this defense from a Big 12 defense that occasionally shows up and makes plays to an SEC defense that will shut you down and make you like it.
How the Vols improved from their first bye week to their second bye week. dark. Next
This is a good defense and probably one of the best we’ve seen in a while. Not the best talent-wise, but the best team that plays with the most heart. Now they have to finish off the season against Missouri and Vanderbilt.