Offense over defense

[1standgoal]

I know the defense won the game in overtime, but the offense was incredible. Dobbs was phenomenal. No fan complaints about the OC now, maybe just a few defensive secondary critics...

 

[IndianapolisVol]

Jones owes the restored faith a lot of our fanbase has this morning to Joshua Dobbs. Pig, Jalen and Barnett had huge games, but Dobbs won that one for us.

If Josh would have been our QB from day one, we would be either 6-3 or 7-2.

 

[Cartervol]

The thing i couldn't figure out is why Sutton wasn't covering Cooper. He about beat us by himself. I would have put Sutton on him and told him to stay on him. Let Demetrius Byrd beat you.

I hope Kentucky, Missouri, Vandy don't have any offensive players named Cooper.

 

[TBtheGBwiththeTD]

I have no idea why we left the defense in knoxville yesterday, but we need to find it over the bye week.

I think we will. We need the D to play well down the stretch to beat UK and Mizzou. Dobbs is awesome but he can't play savior every time.

 

[tm3]

Great win, and the Dobbs show was wonderful.

Playing zone and yielding over 600 yards is a head scratcher, after playing such good D in man coverage earlier in the year.

 

[IPleadInsanity]

The coaches are still learning and getting schooled each week of SEC play. Hopefully the learning process is almost over. Best offensive performance in several years.

 

[chattaboogie]

I think you still have a lot of OC critics and people questioning the play calling.

Did we win? Yes. Was it freakin awesome? Yes. Did our coaches call a good game? No.

I for one will not let the late game heroics cover up the blatant problems our team and coaches demonstrated all game long. Super happy for the win but still furious it took so much to get that win. It was Florida and Georgia all over again (maybe worse) except we got a gift.

 

[Biopsyman]

Coleman was the target

 

[Fingers]

I've learned that when we win it's the players, and when we lose it's the coaches.

Anyone complaining about the offense after nearly 700 yards last night is just looking for something to complain about.

 

[JohnMcA60]

The coaching and play calling was suspect but at the end when it matters they made the right calls and had the trust in our players to win that game. Both sides deserve much praise and a sense of pride.

 

[Spartacavolus]

I've learned that when we win it's the players, and when we lose it's the coaches.

Anyone complaining about the offense after nearly 700 yards last night is just looking for something to complain about.

thank you. I get criticism of coaches when it's warranted and Butch, the OC and DC deserve criticism at times. But complaining after a record setting night of offense is manic, imo. Saying players won in spite of coaches, when coaches kept their heads in the game to pull out the W, is flat out ignorance.

 

[Other_Guy]

I think you still have a lot of OC critics and people questioning the play calling.

Did we win? Yes. Was it freakin awesome? Yes. Did our coaches call a good game? No.

I for one will not let the late game heroics cover up the blatant problems our team and coaches demonstrated all game long. Super happy for the win but still furious it took so much to get that win. It was Florida and Georgia all over again (maybe worse) except we got a gift.

They outcoached Spurrier

 

[chattaboogie]

They outcoached Spurrier

It did end up that way haha.

 

[TBtheGBwiththeTD]

I think you still have a lot of OC critics and people questioning the play calling.

Did we win? Yes. Was it freakin awesome? Yes. Did our coaches call a good game? No.

I for one will not let the late game heroics cover up the blatant problems our team and coaches demonstrated all game long. Super happy for the win but still furious it took so much to get that win. It was Florida and Georgia all over again (maybe worse) except we got a gift.

I agree that there were a lot of blown assignments, and a few coaching decisions that probably wernt the best, but I'm not sure the coaches are a blatant problem.

Not the best day for the coaches, and it was the worst day for the defense, but for once the vols made play after play when they needed too, and won a big SEC road game.

Another well placed bye allows us to regroup and try and beat UK and Mizzou at home

 

[JohnMarxism]

Offense wins games. Our defense was uncharacteristically bad last night, but not bad enough to lose. Kudos to our young kids. This win can be a foundational for our legendary class.

 

[jasonvol18]

The thing i couldn't figure out is why Sutton wasn't covering Cooper. He about beat us by himself. I would have put Sutton on him and told him to stay on him. Let Demetrius Byrd beat you.

I hope Kentucky, Missouri, Vandy don't have any offensive players named Cooper.

I was wondering that too. Atleast the second hslf someone else should have been covering Cooper but every big play he had Coleman was getting beat. That is my one complaint, they didn't do any halftime adjustments to try and stop Cooper.. Good thing is we played two of the better offenses in the country and sec the last two weeks and our last 3 games we shouldn't have to worry about our defense getting run over again.

 

[chattaboogie]

I agree that there were a lot of blown assignments, and a few coaching decisions that probably wernt the best, but I'm not sure the coaches are a blatant problem.

Not the best day for the coaches, and it was the worst day for the defense, but for once the vols made play after play when they needed too, and won a big SEC road game.

Another well placed bye allows us to regroup and try and beat UK and Mizzou at home

I agree that the rest of our schedule looks very favorable now. And it was an incredible game.

I also think that the coaching may seem to improve from this point forward. My main problem with coaching has been with aggressiveness. I think Butch Jones and his staff are plenty capable of winning games with superior talent. With recruiting going the way it has been it won't be long before it is other teams that are forced to try to "steal" a win at Tennessee instead of the other way around.

 

[FlashVolNJ]

The thing i couldn't figure out is why Sutton wasn't covering Cooper. He about beat us by himself. I would have put Sutton on him and told him to stay on him. Let Demetrius Byrd beat you.

I hope Kentucky, Missouri, Vandy don't have any offensive players named Cooper.

Agree completely. Can we please go back to man 2 man D and put our future 1st Rd cover CB on the best WR like we did all year, except for the last two games where we played zone and got torched. As good as both Armani & Pharaoh Cooper are, no way they go for 10+ catches and over 200 yds with Cam on them the entire game. Great team win and proud of the effort!!!

 

[Grand Vol]

Just to toss out the fact most will overlook in their whining...

The defense has been going for six games straight against some pretty stout offenses. They very well could be fatigued and banged up after playing teams like Bama and Ole Miss. So I'd almost expect them to be a bit flatter.

But they certainly saved the game yesterday when it was on the line. The 3 and out to get us the ball back with 1:12 to go and the two sacks plus the pressure in the OT more than made up for any other shortcomings. People like to talk about the QB sacks, but they overlook the play where each and every receiver was covered and Thompson had to throw the ball away.

I think other than a few mistakes, the defense played as well as could be expected yesterday.

 

[esarmstrong]

The thing that puzzles me about this team's defense is how bad we are in the red zone. We are the only team in America that has given up a score every time an opponent has made it into the red zone.

 

[Cartervol]

Just to toss out the fact most will overlook in their whining...

The defense has been going for six games straight against some pretty stout offenses. They very well could be fatigued and banged up after playing teams like Bama and Ole Miss. So I'd almost expect them to be a bit flatter.

But they certainly saved the game yesterday when it was on the line. The 3 and out to get us the ball back with 1:12 to go and the two sacks plus the pressure in the OT more than made up for any other shortcomings. People like to talk about the QB sacks, but they overlook the play where each and every receiver was covered and Thompson had to throw the ball away.

I think other than a few mistakes, the defense played as well as could be expected yesterday.

The Bye week comes at a good time for the defense. On the other hand the offense is hitting its stride. Two weeks may help Dobbs get his timing down with his receivers. He played about as well as you could ask last night though..

 

[Parys_Prince_of_Troy]

Just to toss out the fact most will overlook in their whining...

The defense has been going for six games straight against some pretty stout offenses. They very well could be fatigued and banged up after playing teams like Bama and Ole Miss. So I'd almost expect them to be a bit flatter.

But they certainly saved the game yesterday when it was on the line. The 3 and out to get us the ball back with 1:12 to go and the two sacks plus the pressure in the OT more than made up for any other shortcomings. People like to talk about the QB sacks, but they overlook the play where each and every receiver was covered and Thompson had to throw the ball away.

I think other than a few mistakes, the defense played as well as could be expected yesterday.

I think that's the W talking there. I wouldn't call either Chattanooga or Florida a team with a "stout" offense, at least not when we played them. We have a tough schedule, no more so than the previous two games, but every SEC team does--that's not a valid reason to give a pass on playing poorly. The D played absolutely lights out on those last 2 series, when we needed them to the most. Not taking that away, but before that was not good. But it was good enough last night! I live in Charleston, surrounded by Cocks fans that don't remember they've only been pretty good for about 5-6 years now, so I enjoyed the hell out of this one! But I can't whitewash away letting our opponents set back-to-back school receiving records as "flat."

 

[Doctrippin]

I was shocked at how bad our defense played last night. You expect a road game to be tougher, but 42 points! That is a defensive collapse and totally inexcusable. It put too much pressure on Dobbs who is having to run the ball way too much. They were not ready for the SC offense and seemed to have no answers for Cooper. That is a coaching failure. We were very lucky to come out of there with a win.

 

[calban]

Defense was out of sync all night until the OT.
Shades of how good they can be in the future.
Great win, but took a couple more years off my life.
GBO Let's win out.

 

[chad4930]

Am I the only one that did not like the onside kick? I wanted to kick it deep and try to get the 3 and out in their end of the field. We got the ball but ended up starting from deep in our end.