DiderotsGhost
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2011
- Messages
- 4,497
- Likes
- 22,683
I haven't felt so elated on a Fall Saturday in a long time! Not only did we end the SEC losing steak, but we ended the even worse SEC West losing streak. The last time we had beaten an SEC West opponent was in 2010 in Derek Dooley's 1st year when we beat Ole Miss. And the win came against a top 25 opponent!
Feels great to finally get a big win.
Offense
The Guarantano Express. Ever since the West Virginia game, I've been beating the horn on the idea JG and these WRs are our best offensive weapons. This game demonstrates that more than any other. JG has a breakout game completing 21 / 32 passes for 328 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, and 10.3 yards per pass.
9.03 ypa. JG has been averaging 9.03 yards per pass for the season. He's the best Tennessee QB at throwing deep ball since at least Tyler Bray. His 9.0 yard average is higher than Tyler Bray in 2012, Erik Ainge in 2006, Casey Clausen in 2001, and even Peyton Manning in 1996. Albeit, that average will likely take a hit next week against Bama, but it's time to stop selling JG short. He's the most underrated QB in the SEC right now.
O-line getting better at pass protection; still sucks at run blocking. I haven't been able to rewatch the game yet (and I'm not sure if Freak has posted it on YouTube yet), but without reviewing the tape, my initial thought is that the pass blocking has improved immensely. Yet, the run blocking is still terrible. However, the issue (as it has been all year) is that we're getting overpowered on the line, which is not an easy fix. It's going to take recruiting and more time with S&C to fix the run game issues.
You can't blame Butch for illegal formations. The fact that we are weak at O-line is absolutely Butch's fault, but the fact that we constantly have illegal formation and other line-of-scrimmage penalties is not. Coaching staff really needs to fix this. We've seen it all season and there have been a few where we've been lucky that they didn't flag us.
We still need to pass more. I get it ... Pruitt comes from the Saban school of pounding the rock. He wants to be a run-first team. At the same time, he's also said he wants to play to the team's strengths. Right now, the passing game is the strength and the run game is a weakness. We were more balanced in this game than some others (36 runs, 32 passes), but I'd honestly say we should be passing 55% - 60% of the time. In this game, we averaged 10.3 yards per pass and 1.9 yards per run. That's a huge disparity!
How about those wideouts! JG deserves credit for delivering some perfect deep passes, but Josh Palmer, Jauan Jennings, and Marquez Callaway also came down with some great catches! This WR unit is really starting to hit its stride. And David Johnson is one of the WR coaches in the country.
Tyson Helton. Helton is a great OC and he's taken some unfair flack this season for problems that have little to do with him. The O-line issues have limited the playbook. He called a great game against Auburn.
Defense
Defense made great adjustments. I thought we were in for another long afternoon during the 1st Quarter as Auburn was running over our D, but gotta give credit here ... our coaches and players figured out how to adjust and stop Auburn. After 10 early points, Auburn only scored 14 the entire game (and 7 of those shouldn't have counted).
Auburn's last TD shouldn't have counted. Am I crazy or did the Auburn WR not have possession? I've watched that play two dozen times and I'm 100% convinced he never had the ball. He bobbled it the entire way and our guy got the interception. I'm not sure how that didn't get reviewed. After that happened, I was so terrified that the Tennessee curse was still on and we were going to lose the game.
The pass rush continues to get better. Speaking of improvement, our pass rush has improved more than any other aspect since Game #1. We went from getting no pressure at all during that West Virginia game to consistently getting pressure in this game.
Miscellany
Happy for this team and coaching staff. They deserved a big win.
Gus Malzahn on the hot seat. I knew if we won this game, Malzahn would be on the hot seat. He's a good coach, but he's been weirdly inconsistent. Auburn looked like a national championship team last November, before losing the SECCG to Georgia. Their offense has struggled this season.
Constant improvement. One thing I am really happy about is that we've seen consistent progress in almost every game this year. The 1st Half of the Florida game is the only real exception to this, but otherwise, we've looked better on offense and defense every single week. That's a good sign to me.
The caveats. I'm happy we got the win, but let's be honest ... Auburn made a lot of big mistakes. It's good that we avoided turnovers this game (though we had a few "big mistakes" in the form of penalties), but I'm not so sure we still don't get beat if Auburn had played its "A" game or even its "B" game. We still have a long way to go.
Next week. Enjoy it now, because we're getting clobbered next week versus Bama. Bama has looked like one of the best teams in college football history this season. We'll be lucky to keep it within 3 touchdowns. The things I'm hoping to see: (1) we slow the game down, (2) minimize dumb mistakes / turnovers / penalties, and (3) continue to improve.
South Carolina and beyond. I hate to write-off the Bama game, but realistically, the most important stretch of our season starts in two weeks in Columbia, South Carolina.
Bowl game is possible. Still a tough road ahead, but winning 2 of 4 between SCe, Mizzou, Vandy, and Kentucky is much more doable than 3 out of 4. I think we're about even with South Carolina so far this season, so that'll be a critical game. Kentucky is looking much better than expected, so the SCe and Mizzou games are even more important now.
That's all I got.
GBO!
Feels great to finally get a big win.
Offense
The Guarantano Express. Ever since the West Virginia game, I've been beating the horn on the idea JG and these WRs are our best offensive weapons. This game demonstrates that more than any other. JG has a breakout game completing 21 / 32 passes for 328 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, and 10.3 yards per pass.
9.03 ypa. JG has been averaging 9.03 yards per pass for the season. He's the best Tennessee QB at throwing deep ball since at least Tyler Bray. His 9.0 yard average is higher than Tyler Bray in 2012, Erik Ainge in 2006, Casey Clausen in 2001, and even Peyton Manning in 1996. Albeit, that average will likely take a hit next week against Bama, but it's time to stop selling JG short. He's the most underrated QB in the SEC right now.
O-line getting better at pass protection; still sucks at run blocking. I haven't been able to rewatch the game yet (and I'm not sure if Freak has posted it on YouTube yet), but without reviewing the tape, my initial thought is that the pass blocking has improved immensely. Yet, the run blocking is still terrible. However, the issue (as it has been all year) is that we're getting overpowered on the line, which is not an easy fix. It's going to take recruiting and more time with S&C to fix the run game issues.
You can't blame Butch for illegal formations. The fact that we are weak at O-line is absolutely Butch's fault, but the fact that we constantly have illegal formation and other line-of-scrimmage penalties is not. Coaching staff really needs to fix this. We've seen it all season and there have been a few where we've been lucky that they didn't flag us.
We still need to pass more. I get it ... Pruitt comes from the Saban school of pounding the rock. He wants to be a run-first team. At the same time, he's also said he wants to play to the team's strengths. Right now, the passing game is the strength and the run game is a weakness. We were more balanced in this game than some others (36 runs, 32 passes), but I'd honestly say we should be passing 55% - 60% of the time. In this game, we averaged 10.3 yards per pass and 1.9 yards per run. That's a huge disparity!
How about those wideouts! JG deserves credit for delivering some perfect deep passes, but Josh Palmer, Jauan Jennings, and Marquez Callaway also came down with some great catches! This WR unit is really starting to hit its stride. And David Johnson is one of the WR coaches in the country.
Tyson Helton. Helton is a great OC and he's taken some unfair flack this season for problems that have little to do with him. The O-line issues have limited the playbook. He called a great game against Auburn.
Defense
Defense made great adjustments. I thought we were in for another long afternoon during the 1st Quarter as Auburn was running over our D, but gotta give credit here ... our coaches and players figured out how to adjust and stop Auburn. After 10 early points, Auburn only scored 14 the entire game (and 7 of those shouldn't have counted).
Auburn's last TD shouldn't have counted. Am I crazy or did the Auburn WR not have possession? I've watched that play two dozen times and I'm 100% convinced he never had the ball. He bobbled it the entire way and our guy got the interception. I'm not sure how that didn't get reviewed. After that happened, I was so terrified that the Tennessee curse was still on and we were going to lose the game.
The pass rush continues to get better. Speaking of improvement, our pass rush has improved more than any other aspect since Game #1. We went from getting no pressure at all during that West Virginia game to consistently getting pressure in this game.
Miscellany
Happy for this team and coaching staff. They deserved a big win.
Gus Malzahn on the hot seat. I knew if we won this game, Malzahn would be on the hot seat. He's a good coach, but he's been weirdly inconsistent. Auburn looked like a national championship team last November, before losing the SECCG to Georgia. Their offense has struggled this season.
Constant improvement. One thing I am really happy about is that we've seen consistent progress in almost every game this year. The 1st Half of the Florida game is the only real exception to this, but otherwise, we've looked better on offense and defense every single week. That's a good sign to me.
The caveats. I'm happy we got the win, but let's be honest ... Auburn made a lot of big mistakes. It's good that we avoided turnovers this game (though we had a few "big mistakes" in the form of penalties), but I'm not so sure we still don't get beat if Auburn had played its "A" game or even its "B" game. We still have a long way to go.
Next week. Enjoy it now, because we're getting clobbered next week versus Bama. Bama has looked like one of the best teams in college football history this season. We'll be lucky to keep it within 3 touchdowns. The things I'm hoping to see: (1) we slow the game down, (2) minimize dumb mistakes / turnovers / penalties, and (3) continue to improve.
South Carolina and beyond. I hate to write-off the Bama game, but realistically, the most important stretch of our season starts in two weeks in Columbia, South Carolina.
Bowl game is possible. Still a tough road ahead, but winning 2 of 4 between SCe, Mizzou, Vandy, and Kentucky is much more doable than 3 out of 4. I think we're about even with South Carolina so far this season, so that'll be a critical game. Kentucky is looking much better than expected, so the SCe and Mizzou games are even more important now.
That's all I got.
GBO!
Last edited: