This game magnifies Heupel’s deficiencies

[Zues1]

Again, clock management and play calling

 

[jacksonvol24]

I’ve had enough of JH clock management. He could have called timeout with 25 seconds and called a couple of good plays. He still had two timeouts. His game management is atrocious at best. Joey is a turnover machine but he had to be thinking to hurry up on the pick six because of JH stupid game management skills. I turned it off and didn’t watch another second after the pick six. Just stupid play calling and game time decisions again. It’s every close game we are in. He just has no feel for game time management.

 

[barknoxbrawler]

The deficiency is in the roster. Turpentine and Telander can't be the starters on a championship level defensive team. We need athletes. High level talent to really complement the defensive line. We aren't good enough.

Right before half, Aguilar should have thrown the ball away and let us kick at a field goal. Ultimately blame the head coach but also understand what went on.

If Aguilar, right before the half, throws an accurate ball, then we are back in it and anything would have been possible.

 

[Dicksonorange]

We are simply out of shape on our defensive line. Sucking air. Hands on the hips. He is too soft on them. We played men tonight.

This and they simply cannot get off the field no matter the 3rd or 4th down and distance. They are worn out by the 3rd time on the field usually mid first quarter. I think is the bigger reason thats just my observation.

 

[Orange-U-Glad]

My neighbor is a long suffering Vandy fan. He can hardly wait for Vandy’s game in Knoxville. I am afraid he is right. Vandy plays with discipline and focus. If you check the 247 talent rankings, they are 16th in the conference, yet they gave Bama a much tougher game than we did. Watching this team come out and play sloppy football week after week is extremely frustrating. This team has enough talent to be unbeaten, but it is wasted because of its lack of discipline and poor game management. That is on the coaching staff.

 

[CentalFlVOL4Life]

There was nothing wrong with the clock management there. We have 2nd and goal from the 1 yard line with 9 seconds left. You could in theory run 2 plays in that amount of time. Bad play call imo, but that's a different issue.

To me the clock management was between 1:30 or whatever to the :09. Terrible time management could of easily had between 1-3 more plays at the end of the half. Peyton needs to give the team and staff a lesson on the two-minute drill, when to take time outs, and when to hustle up and spike the ball to sacrifice a down for time.

 

[Skooter]

That game is Thanksgiving weekend with students out of town as well, and we will have 1-2 more losses prior. More Vandy fans will be in Neyland than ever before but never fear Banks will have another genius game plan forcing Pavia to be confused on where to go with the ball when our defense runs for the stands on 3rd and short.

 

[Orange_Vol1321]

The deficiency is in the roster. Turpentine and Telander can't be the starters on a championship level defensive team. We need athletes. High level talent to really complement the defensive line. We aren't good enough.

Right before half, Aguilar should have thrown the ball away and let us kick at a field goal. Ultimately blame the head coach but also understand what went on.

That was a horrible play call. If you throw it, go with a slant. I'd rather us run it three times and kick the field goal.

 

[CNCVol88]

 

[GoVols64]

The difference in this game was a terrible decision/execution by Joey. Could the playcall have been different? Sure, but its about getting favorable matchups and we had the right one. If that ball is put in the right spot its 6. You simply CANNOT throw that ball behind the receiver and should have put some air under it to take the inside defender out of the play. I love me some Joey but this was one to learn from.

Defensively the game was lost when four defenders whiffed on the backwards pass. 10-15 yard loss turns into a 15 yard gain, yikes. We had good coverage downfield and three guys right there to make the play. Poor tackling..... again. This is inexcusable at the D1 level and I simply don't understand how poor tackling is still a major challenge this deep into the season. Fundamentals matter and we are getting those wrong. Coaches need to focus on this.

Disappointing result but there are some bright spots too. As much as folks want to bash the D they actually did a good job of keeping us in it for the most part. Our run fits were better (we were definitely committing more bodies in the box) and we forced Williams to make some very impressive catches. Unfortunately for us, Williams was on his game and pulled them in. The bright spot is coverage was better against a very talented WR group.

First game all year where the Offense was the root cause of the shortfall but we have been riding that line and its just who we are this year. Not much different than when HH took us on a very fun run. As for the "fire everyone" crowd do some box breathing and relax. The players have to execute and the coaches have to scheme them into success. I saw poor execution as more of a concern than anything scheme wise..... Still on coaches? Yes, I'm not saying they are not partially culpable but that was the best defense we have played to date and they had a vote too.

Bottom line this game was winnable if the Offense puts up their normal production and we don't put points on the board for them. This is a top 15 squad at the end of the year and we would be top 10 with a healthy McCoy/Gibson. Such is football life.

 

[GoVols64]

That was a horrible play call. If you throw it, go with a slant. I'd rather us run it three times and kick the field goal.

I went back and re-watched it. The call got 87 in a 1:1 with a smaller defender who was playing inside to out and was beat. The ball placement was the problem. Joey puts a little air under it and throws it to the pylon (or at least leads him a bit) its 6. The ball was grossly underthrown and that is why it got picked. 2nd ball all year that was 100% on JA. I will still ride with our guy though, one heck of a competitor and never gave up despite being in pain all night. Love me some #6.

 

[Remy]

His offensive system masks QB’s decencies but there is only so much success you can have with castoffs from other teams.

His offense disappears in the second half of games. It’s his trademark and has been for years.

 

[VolCalls]

As it wound up...if we had kicked the FG before half we would have been tied 23-23 with Bama in the middle of the 2nd half.....And why do we go for it on 4th and 19 when we need a FG to get it under 3 scores?!! There was so many coaching blunders in this game...Just awful.

This is all moot, but we would've been up 24-23 because we would've kicked the extra point on our first TD of the 2nd half instead of chasing points by going for two.

 

[titansvolsfaninga]

I believe that the target for a successful season has moved. Now that the CFP is all that matters, making a bowl game or winning 8-9 games is simply no longer considered successful. NOBODY cares about the non CFP bowl games...even the fans are opting out of them now.

Whose fault is that? If you can only support your team when they're competing in the playoffs, that sounds like you have a problem. What I don't understand, if most of our "fans" have already proclaimed that the ceiling this year was 7-6, 8-4 at best, why are yall so mad? Every year, every loss, yall crash out. Hell, I said that we would go 15-0, just like I do every year. We have deficiencies on the team. It is what it is.

 

[VolCalls]

Anyone thinking rationally about this game anticipated a loss - myself included. It's the way we lost that's maddening.

We still have a shot at 10-2 but it will take eliminating mistakes to do that, and we haven't been able to eliminate the same mistakes for almost five years, now.

 

[BreatheUT]

If Aguilar, right before the half, throws an accurate ball, then we are back in it and anything would have been possible.

I don't think that particularly play ever had a good chance. Kitselman can't catch anything above his head. Sometimes the perfect pass is the one caught by the offense or lands out of bounds.

 

[TJVol95]

I questioned his coaching when we used the huddle. WTF coach we only play good in rhythm.. He slowed down the only threat we have. Poorly coached game last night.

 

[Lekvolrrah]

His offense disappears in the second half of games. It’s his trademark and has been for years.

Most of it is bc other coaches adjust and he doesn't

 

[The Tall Gguy]

Whose fault is that? If you can only support your team when they're competing in the playoffs, that sounds like you have a problem. What I don't understand, if most of our "fans" have already proclaimed that the ceiling this year was 7-6, 8-4 at best, why are yall so mad? Every year, every loss, yall crash out. Hell, I said that we would go 15-0, just like I do every year. We have deficiencies on the team. It is what it is.

I'm not mad? Why you so mad bro?

 

[volfan411]

I don't think that particularly play ever had a good chance. Kitselman can't catch anything above his head. Sometimes the perfect pass is the one caught by the offense or lands out of bounds.

Agreed that was a terrible call and terrible execution. Joey stared down where the ball was going and then under threw it. He has to read the DB closing in and throw that ball away and take the FG but we knew that coming into the season he takes risk and this time the risk got him. IMO that play probably cost us the game we should have went into the half at most down 6.

 

[Hank Bukowski]

There is no reason to call play action when there is no threat of the run. There is especially no reason to call play action when the other team calls timeout to make sure everyone knows there is no threat of the run.

Penalties galore in every game. We drop more passes than anyone in the country. Heupel beats himself, and his teams beat themselves. If he could get out of his own way, he could be very good. But this was unacceptable and inexcusable in year 5 against a beatable Bama team.

All good, legit, undeniable points. I am officially done with Heupel and this staff.

 

[BreatheUT]

Agreed that was a terrible call and terrible execution. Joey stared down where the ball was going and then under threw it. He has to read the DB closing in and throw that ball away and take the FG but we knew that coming into the season he takes risk and this time the risk got him. IMO that play probably cost us the game we should have went into the half at most down 6.

It was definitely a defining moment of the game as Alabama was on the ropes on that drive.

I've said in other posts, I can't just point to one or two things we did wrong. There were a lot of obvious mistakes. Like not converting the fumble into points at midfield.

The safety we took while allowing Simpson to escape a safety.

Many others.

 

[West Vol]

The deficiency is in the roster. Turpentine and Telander can't be the starters on a championship level defensive team. We need athletes. High level talent to really complement the defensive line. We aren't good enough.

Right before half, Aguilar should have thrown the ball away and let us kick at a field goal. Ultimately blame the head coach but also understand what went on.

Those guys aren’t good enough, but aren’t the reason we lost. The defense wasn’t great, but it didn’t put us in an impossible situation, either. The offense has been a slop fest for three straight SEC games. Bama scored 28 on offense last night, which is basically their conference average. We should have been able to compete with that.

 

[BreatheUT]

Those guys aren’t good enough, but aren’t the reason we lost. The defense wasn’t great, but it didn’t put us in an impossible situation, either. The offense has been a slop fest for three straight SEC games. Bama scored 28 on offense last night, which is basically their conference average. We should have been able to compete with that.

Overall the defense wasn't bad, but it repeated gave up inexcusable 3rd and long. Still your assessment is more in line with my thinking.

 

[volfan411]

Those guys aren’t good enough, but aren’t the reason we lost. The defense wasn’t great, but it didn’t put us in an impossible situation, either. The offense has been a slop fest for three straight SEC games. Bama scored 28 on offense last night, which is basically their conference average. We should have been able to compete with that.

Agreed with this offense you have to win when the defense only gives up 28.