Right, what looks like system inflexibility is really just running with the only thing that works at this point with this roster. Get an impact player on the Dline, a stud pass rusher, an SEC LB and a couple players in the secondary and the defense will hold it's own.
I dont recall less penetration from dt and de on a UT defense than I saw this year. We rarely won our matchups
Not rewatching a single second of a rigged event, but defensively, you would want to focus on that 10-20 yard range pass. Since we had timeouts, you would also want to cover the middle of the field instead of just sidelines. So if you want to hit something 15 yards, you're going to have to hope their coaches were stupid and called a bad coverage (out of your control), hope their players slip or blow coverage (out of your control), or hope your level of execution is on another level (which doesn't seem like a good bet with Hooker as a drop-back passer, especially on that turf). Also the kicker appeared to be walking with an odd hitch a couple plays before the FG. I think it was as he came off from practicing on the field during the injury timeout. And the footing was obviously sketchy. Throwing short likely still leaves you with a 45+ yarder. Intermediate is what their defense would be keying on, so IMO it has the highest turnover/sack risk, isn't any more likely to work, and doesn't get you a lot closer on the FG. The process of going deep seems like it worked to me; you just have to execute better/hope that the laws of the game won't be abandoned to get someone their preferred outcome. If I trusted the kicker more, maybe two short passes is the move. But if one is incomplete, it doesn't really move the needle too far. At least situationally, I'm good with what we did. Taking the timeout on 2nd and 2 could have set us up better, but we got the first down on that run, which was kind of an anomaly for us in a short yardage situation. So I can see why we did it - making a suboptimal clock management move to maintain offensive tempo seems like something we have to live with as long as we're "scheme-heavy".
We realistically needed 18-20 yards to feel good about a FG. McGrath is a good kicker, but he doesn’t have a big leg. He had three makes beyond 40 and only one of those was beyond 45. I didn’t love going deep both times, but we had Velus on a LB and Tillman in single coverage. If Hooker connects with Velus or the incompetent ref realizes he can throw a flag for DPI/holding on both teams, we win.
The camera angle on the kick looked like he had the distance but the kick was arrow straight off his foot. Never hooked in and missed a little to the right. Am I correct there or was the kick short altogether?
He coulda checked down but I think that's something Hooker hopefully improves on as he seems to either launch or take off. Plus he didn't want to take a sack and we were not giving our RTs any help. I think about the great qbs in that same situation, and they throw to the same wide ass open wr and expect to connect or get a PI. Anything but overthrow and the game is ours.
It was definitely short. But kickers who only kick from 45 in most games regularly hit from 55-60 in practice (source: my cousin married a former FCS kicker). You’re not going to let them try in all but the most desperate situations, but it’s plausibly still higher percentage than a Hail Mary.
It looked pretty short on the replay. He might have had enough leg to hit from 50, but even that was iffy.
Had to hit it perfect and his best kick ever. Didn't hit it well. Also probably needed to be a lower driving kick. I was actually worried about a crazy block for td since his xps looked low. This kick got up quicker than his xps
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Even Dan Wolken says it should have been a TD and I can't stop laughing. It has to be terrible for Wolken to take UT's side
The only guy we have who could win a jump ball is Tillman, but I assume Purdue would’ve been smart enough to quadruple cover him.
Picked this up from TOS: ACC officials called two of TN’s 13 games in 2021. 28 of Vols season total of 89 penalties (31.46%) came from these two contests.
If I were Heupel, I’d not let anyone forget about this fact either… we gotta go to Pitt next year and you can be SURE the ACC refs are already getting the fix in…
