There’s seemingly a lot of angst about our defensive performance in the game. It’s all over the web especially in the various forums where Vol fans gather. Obviously it’s in this thread too.
Our run defense did good but the concern is really still our pass defense. I think we had at least 13 pressures on Richardson. There’s a number of fans discounting any concerns or chalking it up to their lower expectations. The typical reasons are proposed that thwart any accountability. It is what it is.
I think our guys in the back end need to learn how to tackle. Hadden missed a lot of fall camp and so that’s a rational explanation why his tackling sometimes seems middle-schoolish. Still he led the team in tackles. He wasn’t alone in tackling deficiency. I think the whole backend played poorly. We might have given up 200 fewer yards if we had tackled better. We had a few opportunities to take Richardson to the ground behind the LOS but the effort on those plays by our blitzing DBs didn’t seem very convincing to me.
PFF grades for the game:
CB Christian Charles — 62.1 (81 plays)
CB Kamal Hadden — 60.3 (89 plays)
S Jaylen McCollough — 56.9 (90 plays)
S Trevon Flowers — 54.5 (90 plays)
STAR Tarmarion McDonald — 44.8 (74 plays)
I think everybody is glad to get the win but I think a number of people are lowering expectations based solely on the performance of our pass defense in the game. We were last in the country last year in pass defense for all of football, at any level, including pop warner. The disappointment after Saturday is that it looks like we’re even worse this year. We could make a pop warner QB a legitimate contender for the Heisman. We might even be able to get every 7-year old QB in the country nominated for the honor. lol
Heupel was critical of the pass defense in his postgame remarks. A lot of people in the stadium, probably including prospective recruits, at the end of the game were wondering whether or not we were going to choke the game away after such a brilliant offensive performance. Yes, Florida, regardless of what they say, went home with a moral victory. Who cares, right? Anyone who was referenced in the Tradition video narrated by David Keith several years ago. That’s who. Vol fans don’t want to just beat our rivals; we want them humiliated. That’s partly why the win to some is a bit less satisfying than it would have been if we could have delivered on Nico’s forecast of a 3 TD winning margin.
Heupel said we needed to be tighter in our coverage. After they watch the film I’m sure they’ll see that after missing a world record number of tackles that is something our secondary guys will also need to work on during the bye week.
SBV said after the Pitt game that “perhaps” Hooker had peaked in his performance last year. Listening to Hendon in the postgame that week I was disappointed in the way he addressed some legitimate concerns. That didn't happen this week. Hendon had a career performance against Florida and in the postgame both he and McCoy sitting side by side came across as guys I thought could compete for championships. They were down to earth and talked about preparation, work, and the job that they have the opportunity to do. Maybe the guys heard the noise and as I said at the time, “got their heads on straight.”
I think the same dynamic can work to improve our pass defense. I reject the idea that we don’t have the talent. I said last week we’d probably be okay without Tillman. We have a lot of talent on this roster and have had. The QBs, RBs, and WRs are playing championship level football. So is the DL and from what I can see so too are the LBs. I think the OL is good enough. I think at TE we're lacking a bit but the biggest weakness on our team I think is our secondary. I’m not convinced it’s the guys as much as I think it’s the way they’re playing. We need our coaches to coach them up and put them in the best position for them to be successful. It’s mostly about fundamentals and we have a bye week to work on it.
I’m pretty sure the staff and players will hear the noise. I hope they do. FPI after week 3 gave us a 50.6% probability of beating LSU. After the Florida game that shifted to a 59.1% chance of LSU beating us. We fell 4 spots in FPI and 3 spots in the Sagarin ratings. I think SP+ dropped us one spot. This is all based on the data from the game relative to pregame expectations by the computers. It’s not that important but it does align with the idea some fans have that even with the win we underperformed, especially in the closing moments of the game.
Hooker said in his postgame remarks the team’s goal this year is to get to Atlanta. That’s probably the staff’s goal too and the same for most fans. In order for that to happen we’re almost certainly going to have to improve the performance of our pass defense. No excuses. Let’s do this. jmo.
Yep. More than half the RF went full FF for two days when we beat FL. It's disgusting. 
