DiderotsGhost
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Another ugly game. I have forced myself to do a write-up and here it is.
Big Picture
Maybe JG is not the biggest problem. Watching Kentucky, I was convinced that JG was the biggest problem. After all, he had 3 extremely egregious turnovers. Watching us play against Alabama and Arkansas, however, I have to think that while JG may be flawed, the bigger problem is higher up.
Pruitt is turning into Muschamp. I really really really hate to say this, but I'm starting to worry Pruitt is just a repackaged Muschamp. Defense didn't play perfect last night, but outside of that 3rd Quarter onslaught, they played well. Offense did absolutely nothing. Again. And it's like we're not even trying.
Ultra-conservative. Look at the teams competing for national titles and none of them are running ultra-conservative offenses. Pruitt wants to run the ball every down. You have to be able to pass the ball and make big plays to win in the modern game. That's how we had success last season; throwing to Jennings, Callaway, and Palmer. We've totally moved away from that and we're running at nearly a 4-to-1 ratio. You can't win games like that! There is no innovation. There is no surprise. Opposing defenses know exactly what we're going to do.
Announcer was flat-out wrong. Announcer saying "Tennessee moved away from what they were good at." No we didn't. It's like he wasn't even watching the same game. We did exactly what we were good at (run the ball). We just did it so many times it became predictable and Arkansas' defense made 2nd half adjustments to stop it. Not that difficult for defenses to adjust when you can only do 1 thing well.
Passing game. Unless Pruitt opens up the passing game soon, he's done for. This is absolutely ridiculous. When Maurer took over in the 3rd after JG's injury, we'd only thrown 8 passes, versus something like 32 runs. That's not balance. That's not unpredictable. That's a recipe to finish at the bottom of the SEC. You have to be able to pass the ball and get big plays in the passing game, like we did last year. It feels like Pruitt is playing scared right now. JG had one disaster game against Kentucky and Pruitt responded by coaching ultra-conservative.
Offense
Maurer. Struggled, but also difficult to evaluate, because we didn't throw him in until things looked ugly. And then we kept running the ball when the defense knew we were going to run it. He also had a rough week to begin with. I wouldn't read too much into his performance.
Bailey. Played reasonably well given the circumstances. Yeah, 2 INTs, but at that point, we had to pass and the defense knew we had to pass. Once again highlighting the fact that our gameplans make it so the defense knows what we're going to do at all times. We're going to run almost literally every down till we're behind. Then when we fall behind a bunch with a conservative game plan, we'll be forced to pass in bad circumstances.
Start Bailey. Even though I now believe JG isn't the biggest problem, I still think I'd start Bailey next week. Feels like he's the best QB on the roster, but small sample size and less-than-ideal circumstances make it difficult to ascertain.
Eric Gray. He's playing so well and it sucks to watch his performances wasted by inept offensive coaching. He's a great player, but you can't put 100% of the offensive burden on him. Feels a bit like 2017 when John Kelly struggled because he was literally the only weapon on our offense. Except, Gray is not the only weapon on our offense; we have plenty of weapons we aren't using. That's what's so frustrating.
Not a fan of No-RB set. Perhaps the only innovation we used last night was the no-RB set, but I hated that look. Why? If the strength of your team is the run game and you have an RB that is also an excellent WR (Eric Gray), then why use a formation with no RB? You can use Eric Gray as a receiver. I don't know what's going on with the offensive coaches, but nothing they are doing makes that much sense to me lately. The gameplans are strategically confused. It feels like 5 different coaches are all arguing about what to do and they come up with some terrible worst-of-all-worlds compromise each week.
Defense
Playing well most of the time. In spite of the gloom and doom here (and I'll admit I'm in that gloom-and-doom camp at the moment), the defense is playing extremely well for long stretches of the game. Almost all of the issues came in the 3rd Quarter. The offense deserves some blame on that, with nothing but 3-and-outs putting even more pressure on the defense. But still, we needed to make some better defensive adjustments sooner.
Slants. If I were an opposing coach, I think I'd just throw the slant 80 times in a row against us. I've yet to see any evidence that our defense can stop it. It seems like every opposing coach realizes we can't defend it well.
To'o To'o. Played very well. Sucks to see great performances on D get squandered.
End Thoughts
We lost 2 games with superior talent. While it sucks to lose to Georgia and Alabama, at least we know both teams are loaded with 5-star talent. Losing to 2 teams that we were clearly more talented than (Kentucky and Arkansas) simply due to poor coaching and execution sucks.
Big Picture. D didn't play perfectly, but you can't win games in the modern game when you only score 13 points. And running the ball 80% of the time is a recipe for only scoring 13 points.
Hate to say it, but this is the most depressed about Vol football I've been since 2017.
GBO!
Big Picture
Maybe JG is not the biggest problem. Watching Kentucky, I was convinced that JG was the biggest problem. After all, he had 3 extremely egregious turnovers. Watching us play against Alabama and Arkansas, however, I have to think that while JG may be flawed, the bigger problem is higher up.
Pruitt is turning into Muschamp. I really really really hate to say this, but I'm starting to worry Pruitt is just a repackaged Muschamp. Defense didn't play perfect last night, but outside of that 3rd Quarter onslaught, they played well. Offense did absolutely nothing. Again. And it's like we're not even trying.
Ultra-conservative. Look at the teams competing for national titles and none of them are running ultra-conservative offenses. Pruitt wants to run the ball every down. You have to be able to pass the ball and make big plays to win in the modern game. That's how we had success last season; throwing to Jennings, Callaway, and Palmer. We've totally moved away from that and we're running at nearly a 4-to-1 ratio. You can't win games like that! There is no innovation. There is no surprise. Opposing defenses know exactly what we're going to do.
Announcer was flat-out wrong. Announcer saying "Tennessee moved away from what they were good at." No we didn't. It's like he wasn't even watching the same game. We did exactly what we were good at (run the ball). We just did it so many times it became predictable and Arkansas' defense made 2nd half adjustments to stop it. Not that difficult for defenses to adjust when you can only do 1 thing well.
Passing game. Unless Pruitt opens up the passing game soon, he's done for. This is absolutely ridiculous. When Maurer took over in the 3rd after JG's injury, we'd only thrown 8 passes, versus something like 32 runs. That's not balance. That's not unpredictable. That's a recipe to finish at the bottom of the SEC. You have to be able to pass the ball and get big plays in the passing game, like we did last year. It feels like Pruitt is playing scared right now. JG had one disaster game against Kentucky and Pruitt responded by coaching ultra-conservative.
Offense
Maurer. Struggled, but also difficult to evaluate, because we didn't throw him in until things looked ugly. And then we kept running the ball when the defense knew we were going to run it. He also had a rough week to begin with. I wouldn't read too much into his performance.
Bailey. Played reasonably well given the circumstances. Yeah, 2 INTs, but at that point, we had to pass and the defense knew we had to pass. Once again highlighting the fact that our gameplans make it so the defense knows what we're going to do at all times. We're going to run almost literally every down till we're behind. Then when we fall behind a bunch with a conservative game plan, we'll be forced to pass in bad circumstances.
Start Bailey. Even though I now believe JG isn't the biggest problem, I still think I'd start Bailey next week. Feels like he's the best QB on the roster, but small sample size and less-than-ideal circumstances make it difficult to ascertain.
Eric Gray. He's playing so well and it sucks to watch his performances wasted by inept offensive coaching. He's a great player, but you can't put 100% of the offensive burden on him. Feels a bit like 2017 when John Kelly struggled because he was literally the only weapon on our offense. Except, Gray is not the only weapon on our offense; we have plenty of weapons we aren't using. That's what's so frustrating.
Not a fan of No-RB set. Perhaps the only innovation we used last night was the no-RB set, but I hated that look. Why? If the strength of your team is the run game and you have an RB that is also an excellent WR (Eric Gray), then why use a formation with no RB? You can use Eric Gray as a receiver. I don't know what's going on with the offensive coaches, but nothing they are doing makes that much sense to me lately. The gameplans are strategically confused. It feels like 5 different coaches are all arguing about what to do and they come up with some terrible worst-of-all-worlds compromise each week.
Defense
Playing well most of the time. In spite of the gloom and doom here (and I'll admit I'm in that gloom-and-doom camp at the moment), the defense is playing extremely well for long stretches of the game. Almost all of the issues came in the 3rd Quarter. The offense deserves some blame on that, with nothing but 3-and-outs putting even more pressure on the defense. But still, we needed to make some better defensive adjustments sooner.
Slants. If I were an opposing coach, I think I'd just throw the slant 80 times in a row against us. I've yet to see any evidence that our defense can stop it. It seems like every opposing coach realizes we can't defend it well.
To'o To'o. Played very well. Sucks to see great performances on D get squandered.
End Thoughts
We lost 2 games with superior talent. While it sucks to lose to Georgia and Alabama, at least we know both teams are loaded with 5-star talent. Losing to 2 teams that we were clearly more talented than (Kentucky and Arkansas) simply due to poor coaching and execution sucks.
Big Picture. D didn't play perfectly, but you can't win games in the modern game when you only score 13 points. And running the ball 80% of the time is a recipe for only scoring 13 points.
Hate to say it, but this is the most depressed about Vol football I've been since 2017.
GBO!
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