nicksjuzunk
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Tennessee heads to Columbia, South Carolina this week to take on the Gamecocks. The Vols played inspired football against hated rivals Alabama last week, though they fell short in the end. The introduction of Josh Dobbs has a lot of fans excited, and it will be fun to see if he can continue to improve.
Keys to the Game:
1. A Little Dobbs will do ya: While Dobbs did not play perfect football, he probably exceeded expectations for all fans, even those who thought he would play well. His mobility, zip on the ball, and confidence are welcomed changes, and his presence adds a lot more to the playbook.
2. For once... this year, the Offensive Line will not have to go against a top tier defense. The OL played better against Bama, but having Dobbs escape for 30 yard scampers when our previous QB would have taken a 8 yard sack does help appearances a bit
The OL should be playing with more confidence now, and a relatively weak USC DL will only help to build that confidence. Give Dobbs time, and increased reps this week in practice, and those little issues with accuracy should be helped quite a bit.
3. D-up: South Carolina can acquire points (32.8 ppg), even against their better opponents. 3 out of 4 of their losses have been by a combined 15 points, so you are pretty close to seeing a 1 loss team here who has had bad luck.
Dylan Thompson throws for 285 YPG, but has 6 INT's in his last two games. The defensive backs will be challenged, but I think our quality there is good enough, and we should have some take-aways.
4. Run for your life: Teams have had a lot of success running the ball against USC. Not only that, USC gives up big, shiny plays, for lots of yards on defense. We may finally see the "coming out party" for Hurd. Auburn ran for 395 yards. Yeah, that's right, 395 yards. QB Nick Marshall had 89, so look for Dobbs to be used in the running game to take advantage of that.
5. Crush Williams-Brice: Columbia is not the most difficult of SEC venues, but they can get up for a game. The fact is, no matter how much "revenge" they may be looking for this week, this is a 4-4 team that had aspirations of playing for the SEC Championship. It's hard to get up for a 3-5 Tennessee team when the season is already considered a failure, and if Tennessee can have success early, the crowd will be out of it, and the team will not be able to ride on those emotions.
Prediction: I could see a shootout on the horizon, but man... this game could go so many different ways. End the end, I think that we see a moderate scoring game and lots of big plays for the Vols. I think the Vols pull away with this one, with solid 3rd down defense and forcing Thompson into turnovers. Hurd rushes for 150+, and we see the closest thing to our future offense, given that Tennessee can actually match up fairly well without having to hide deficiencies.
TN 35
USC 20
Keys to the Game:
1. A Little Dobbs will do ya: While Dobbs did not play perfect football, he probably exceeded expectations for all fans, even those who thought he would play well. His mobility, zip on the ball, and confidence are welcomed changes, and his presence adds a lot more to the playbook.
2. For once... this year, the Offensive Line will not have to go against a top tier defense. The OL played better against Bama, but having Dobbs escape for 30 yard scampers when our previous QB would have taken a 8 yard sack does help appearances a bit
The OL should be playing with more confidence now, and a relatively weak USC DL will only help to build that confidence. Give Dobbs time, and increased reps this week in practice, and those little issues with accuracy should be helped quite a bit.
3. D-up: South Carolina can acquire points (32.8 ppg), even against their better opponents. 3 out of 4 of their losses have been by a combined 15 points, so you are pretty close to seeing a 1 loss team here who has had bad luck.
Dylan Thompson throws for 285 YPG, but has 6 INT's in his last two games. The defensive backs will be challenged, but I think our quality there is good enough, and we should have some take-aways.
4. Run for your life: Teams have had a lot of success running the ball against USC. Not only that, USC gives up big, shiny plays, for lots of yards on defense. We may finally see the "coming out party" for Hurd. Auburn ran for 395 yards. Yeah, that's right, 395 yards. QB Nick Marshall had 89, so look for Dobbs to be used in the running game to take advantage of that.
5. Crush Williams-Brice: Columbia is not the most difficult of SEC venues, but they can get up for a game. The fact is, no matter how much "revenge" they may be looking for this week, this is a 4-4 team that had aspirations of playing for the SEC Championship. It's hard to get up for a 3-5 Tennessee team when the season is already considered a failure, and if Tennessee can have success early, the crowd will be out of it, and the team will not be able to ride on those emotions.
Prediction: I could see a shootout on the horizon, but man... this game could go so many different ways. End the end, I think that we see a moderate scoring game and lots of big plays for the Vols. I think the Vols pull away with this one, with solid 3rd down defense and forcing Thompson into turnovers. Hurd rushes for 150+, and we see the closest thing to our future offense, given that Tennessee can actually match up fairly well without having to hide deficiencies.
TN 35
USC 20
