The Tennessee Volunteers made things close late, but it wasn’t enough, as they fell to the No. 1 Texas Longhorns 20-17 on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee rallied in the final minutes and got a Hail Mary into the end zone, but it fell incomplete.
It was a brutal day on the offensive side of the ball for Tennessee. Faizon Brandon was 17/29 passing for 145 yards and a score. DeSean Bishop led a dreadful Tennessee ground game (44 carries for 70 yards) with 33 yards on nine carries. Mike
Matthews led all pass catchers with four grabs for 72 yards and a late 30-yard touchdown.
The Longhorns started off the game with the ball, and they looked legit, going 75 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. The drive was charged by a 43-yard grab on an absolute duck from Arch Manning that Tennessee’s defense should have picked but didn’t because they were badly beat. Tennessee answered with their own drive, going 60 yards and getting on the board with a Cooper Ranvier 33-yard field goal.
And then, the scoring would halt for the half. Tennessee punted three times and was turned over on downs late in the quarter. Part of Tennessee’s struggles came when Brandon left the game with a shoulder injury and was replaced by George MacIntyre. Brandon was able to come in and finish the half, with the Longhorns taking a 10-3 lead into the locker room.
The failure from Tennessee’s offense came strongly, strongly due to an absolutely atrocious game from Tennessee’s offensive line. The Vols were just abused at the point of attack on a play-to-play basis throughout the game. There were no running lanes for the Vols’ normally dominant ground game. Texas also racked up an incredible 10 sacks on the day, with future first round pick Colin Simmons racking up five alone.
The playcalling was also extremely suspect, with Josh Heupel completely unwilling to mix things up and try the quick screen game or a trick play to break momentum. He was content in letting Brandon sit in the pocket scanning deep routes over and over and over again despite the game being a one score game — and with the OL being completely unable to block the Longhorns’ front. It was arguably Heupel’s worst job ever as a play caller in Knoxville.
Still, a Qua Moss punt return touchdown leveled the game at 10, and after Texas took a 13-10 lead on the next possession, the game hung there for most of the second half. Tennessee’s defense was flat-out awesome for most of the game, holding the Longhorns to 262 total yards and notching six sacks.
Texas finally broke through on a 60-yard touchdown drive with under six minutes left to go up 20-10, and that seemed to be that.
Until it wasn’t. FINALLY Brandon connected downfield, and this time it was to Matthews in the end zone for a 30-yard score with 1:21 left. And then, Tennessee recovered the onside kick near midfield, and Neyland Stadium went crazy.
Once again, unfortunately, Tennessee tried to dial up something deep rather than something simple to their playmakers in space, and a sack and a holding penalty kept Tennessee around midfield, necessitating a Hail Mary towards DaSaahn Brame that was knocked away to end it.
A painful loss (particularly given the chance at the end), one that emphasized just how far Tennessee’s once-solid offensive line has fallen, and one that begs a review of, frankly, a flat-out poor offensive game plan and strategy moving forward.
