DiderotsGhost
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Alright, ladies and gentleman, it's time for the 1st edition of my post-game thoughts.
U-G-L-Y. That was quite possibly the ugliest win I can ever remember, but Ill take it. 1-0 > 0-1.
Learn and Move On. I play a lot of poker tournaments. Even if youre a very good player, you will occasionally find yourself in a spot where you misread a situation, get all your chips in the middle, and discover you have the worst hand. You might only have a 20% chance of winning and you realize you made a big mistake. Then, as fate would have it, you hit one of your outs, and you win the hand. You knock the other player out of the tournament. You feel a little bit bad about it, because you didnt deserve to win. All the same, you silently celebrate, and move on. You learn from your mistake, and adjust your play. Ive won tournaments after hands like that. Our Vols didnt deserve to win that game, but all they can do is take the "W", learn from their mistakes, and use it as motivation to get better.
App State. Ok, so we didnt bring our A game, but dont forget App State was an 11-2 team last year and brought back a very large number of its starters. This is one of the best Group of 5 teams out there; this was no cupcake game. For a G5 team, they matched up pretty well against us, as well, as App States run defense is very strong, and their option-oriented running attack is difficult to defend, particularly for a defense that is better known for pass-rushing such as ours. So while we certainly played poorly last night, let's not forget that App State is a very good team.
Special Teams was Bad! In my pre-season position group ratings post, I gave our Special Teams an A- grade. One poster thought that was too low and that it should have been an A or A+. Well yesterday, the best Special Teams in America looked terrible. Wtf happened out there? A Cam Sutton fumble, a JRM targeting penalty, and a huge App State punt return? We did not see these big mistakes on STs last year.
The Positive on Special Teams. Ok Im not being totally fair to Special Teams. Evan Berry broke out for another huge return. Aaron Medley hit two critical field goals. And our kickoff coverage was excellent. But we did have a lot of mistakes in regards to punting and punt returns. Thats unacceptable. Lets hope this was first week jitters.
Offense was lackluster. Our offense wasnt a disaster like Special Teams, but it didnt play particularly well either.
Dobbs' Decision-making was Horrendous. Truly an awful game by Dobbs. The interception was bad; he forced the ball when he didn't need to. However, it was far from the only mistake. Dobbs made questionable decisions all night. In the 1st Quarter, there was a 3rd & 18 where Dobbs threw to Hurd in heavy traffic, for what wouldve been a fairly insignificant gain; it was a high risk / low reward play; Dobbs shouldve known better. There were a few more where we got lucky there was no INT. And then the fumble at the end couldve (and probably shouldve) cost us the game, if it hadnt been for a heroic Jalen Hurd dive for the ball. It didnt seem like Dobbs was thinking things through well the entire night. He wasn't seeing the field very well. Hoping this was just opening day rust, but with the exception of a few plays, Dobbs did not look very good out there last night.
Offensive Line Needs Work. Our O-line was a major weakness early last season. By the end of the season, it was a major strength and our O-line was the biggest reason why we completely blew away Northwestern. The O-line didnt look terrible last night, but didnt look great either. Too many Appy State defenders blowing through the line and getting to Dobbs. Weve got to get better.
Fumble Recoveries. We did one thing right, at least. Dylan Weisman had a big recovery. Jalen Hurd had an epic recovery that won us the game.
Josh Malone. Excellent catch on the touchdown play. He made it look a lot easier than it was.
Preston Williams. Lot of nice catches. I still think that one catch was a touchdown. The ball did not come out until he hit the ground. Bad call by the refs.
Wide Receivers. Come to think of it, our WRs played pretty well last night. We looked a lot better at WR than we did last season.
Defense was Excellent. If there was any silver lining in this game, our defense played spectacular. Sure they gave up 13 points, but 7 of those points were attributable to a Special Teams fumble. Stopping an option oriented running attack is no easy task. App State has a very productive and difficult-to-defend offense. Our D really put the kibosh on that running attack.
Micah Abernathy. I was extremely impressed with Micah Abernathy. LaDarrell McNeil and Brian Randolph were two of our biggest losses to graduation this season, but Abernathy proved himself a worthy replacement. That open-field tackle in the 1st Quarter was a thing of beauty!
It's App-uh-LATCH-un! The older I get, the more annoyed I become when people say App-uh-LAY-shun. Come on Brent Musberger, you can do better! Jesse Palmer got it right, so kudos to him.
Where Do We Go Now? There are insanely high expectations for this season and I think this game showed that those are going to be difficult to meet. An 11-1 season is probably not realistic. Nevertheless, this was just Game #1 We can improve, and still have a very successful year. Were capable of beating every team on our schedule, but we have to play better than we did last night. Dobbs needs to regain his focus and composure. The O-line needs to find a way to stop the pass rush. And we cant afford to make these sort of big mistakes against teams like Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Lets hope this game was a wake-up call.
Media Overreaction. The media overhyped us to start the season, with many writers picking us to go 11-1. Now the media is going to overreact to the near loss. Chris Low, whose opinion I normally respect, said Tennessees not the ninth-best team in the country. Maybe the ninth-best team in the SEC -- but not the country. Seriously? App State is a very good team and we looked awful, but I have few doubts that were better than 9th best in the SEC.
Battle at Bristol. Man, this is going to be a weird game! We're going to be watching "history." It will be interesting to see how different the VT offense looks this season with Justin Fuente as HC. We also can't afford to keep making big mistakes on Special Teams and on Offense against VT. The VT defense knows how to take advantage.
Position Grades
Quarterbacks: D. Way too many mental errors by Dobbs. Hes capable of playing much better than that.
Running Backs: B. Hurd had a good game, but not a spectacular one. Give him credit, though; he saved the game for us, and that makes up for the fumble.
Wide Receivers: B+. Malone and P-Williams looked good out there.
O-line: C+. Needs some work on pass protection. Not functioning as well as a unit as it did at the end of last season.
D-line: A-. Nothing stands out, but the D-line was solid all night.
Linebackers: B+. JRM was a big loss, but our LBs played pretty well overall.
Secondary: A. The secondary seemed invisible all night; which is normally a sign that they are playing very well. Overall, the secondary was our best unit last night.
Special Teams: C-. All those ST mistakes! Good job by Medley and Evan Berry, though.
U-G-L-Y. That was quite possibly the ugliest win I can ever remember, but Ill take it. 1-0 > 0-1.
Learn and Move On. I play a lot of poker tournaments. Even if youre a very good player, you will occasionally find yourself in a spot where you misread a situation, get all your chips in the middle, and discover you have the worst hand. You might only have a 20% chance of winning and you realize you made a big mistake. Then, as fate would have it, you hit one of your outs, and you win the hand. You knock the other player out of the tournament. You feel a little bit bad about it, because you didnt deserve to win. All the same, you silently celebrate, and move on. You learn from your mistake, and adjust your play. Ive won tournaments after hands like that. Our Vols didnt deserve to win that game, but all they can do is take the "W", learn from their mistakes, and use it as motivation to get better.
App State. Ok, so we didnt bring our A game, but dont forget App State was an 11-2 team last year and brought back a very large number of its starters. This is one of the best Group of 5 teams out there; this was no cupcake game. For a G5 team, they matched up pretty well against us, as well, as App States run defense is very strong, and their option-oriented running attack is difficult to defend, particularly for a defense that is better known for pass-rushing such as ours. So while we certainly played poorly last night, let's not forget that App State is a very good team.
Special Teams was Bad! In my pre-season position group ratings post, I gave our Special Teams an A- grade. One poster thought that was too low and that it should have been an A or A+. Well yesterday, the best Special Teams in America looked terrible. Wtf happened out there? A Cam Sutton fumble, a JRM targeting penalty, and a huge App State punt return? We did not see these big mistakes on STs last year.
The Positive on Special Teams. Ok Im not being totally fair to Special Teams. Evan Berry broke out for another huge return. Aaron Medley hit two critical field goals. And our kickoff coverage was excellent. But we did have a lot of mistakes in regards to punting and punt returns. Thats unacceptable. Lets hope this was first week jitters.
Offense was lackluster. Our offense wasnt a disaster like Special Teams, but it didnt play particularly well either.
Dobbs' Decision-making was Horrendous. Truly an awful game by Dobbs. The interception was bad; he forced the ball when he didn't need to. However, it was far from the only mistake. Dobbs made questionable decisions all night. In the 1st Quarter, there was a 3rd & 18 where Dobbs threw to Hurd in heavy traffic, for what wouldve been a fairly insignificant gain; it was a high risk / low reward play; Dobbs shouldve known better. There were a few more where we got lucky there was no INT. And then the fumble at the end couldve (and probably shouldve) cost us the game, if it hadnt been for a heroic Jalen Hurd dive for the ball. It didnt seem like Dobbs was thinking things through well the entire night. He wasn't seeing the field very well. Hoping this was just opening day rust, but with the exception of a few plays, Dobbs did not look very good out there last night.
Offensive Line Needs Work. Our O-line was a major weakness early last season. By the end of the season, it was a major strength and our O-line was the biggest reason why we completely blew away Northwestern. The O-line didnt look terrible last night, but didnt look great either. Too many Appy State defenders blowing through the line and getting to Dobbs. Weve got to get better.
Fumble Recoveries. We did one thing right, at least. Dylan Weisman had a big recovery. Jalen Hurd had an epic recovery that won us the game.
Josh Malone. Excellent catch on the touchdown play. He made it look a lot easier than it was.
Preston Williams. Lot of nice catches. I still think that one catch was a touchdown. The ball did not come out until he hit the ground. Bad call by the refs.
Wide Receivers. Come to think of it, our WRs played pretty well last night. We looked a lot better at WR than we did last season.
Defense was Excellent. If there was any silver lining in this game, our defense played spectacular. Sure they gave up 13 points, but 7 of those points were attributable to a Special Teams fumble. Stopping an option oriented running attack is no easy task. App State has a very productive and difficult-to-defend offense. Our D really put the kibosh on that running attack.
Micah Abernathy. I was extremely impressed with Micah Abernathy. LaDarrell McNeil and Brian Randolph were two of our biggest losses to graduation this season, but Abernathy proved himself a worthy replacement. That open-field tackle in the 1st Quarter was a thing of beauty!
It's App-uh-LATCH-un! The older I get, the more annoyed I become when people say App-uh-LAY-shun. Come on Brent Musberger, you can do better! Jesse Palmer got it right, so kudos to him.
Where Do We Go Now? There are insanely high expectations for this season and I think this game showed that those are going to be difficult to meet. An 11-1 season is probably not realistic. Nevertheless, this was just Game #1 We can improve, and still have a very successful year. Were capable of beating every team on our schedule, but we have to play better than we did last night. Dobbs needs to regain his focus and composure. The O-line needs to find a way to stop the pass rush. And we cant afford to make these sort of big mistakes against teams like Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Lets hope this game was a wake-up call.
Media Overreaction. The media overhyped us to start the season, with many writers picking us to go 11-1. Now the media is going to overreact to the near loss. Chris Low, whose opinion I normally respect, said Tennessees not the ninth-best team in the country. Maybe the ninth-best team in the SEC -- but not the country. Seriously? App State is a very good team and we looked awful, but I have few doubts that were better than 9th best in the SEC.
Battle at Bristol. Man, this is going to be a weird game! We're going to be watching "history." It will be interesting to see how different the VT offense looks this season with Justin Fuente as HC. We also can't afford to keep making big mistakes on Special Teams and on Offense against VT. The VT defense knows how to take advantage.
Position Grades
Quarterbacks: D. Way too many mental errors by Dobbs. Hes capable of playing much better than that.
Running Backs: B. Hurd had a good game, but not a spectacular one. Give him credit, though; he saved the game for us, and that makes up for the fumble.
Wide Receivers: B+. Malone and P-Williams looked good out there.
O-line: C+. Needs some work on pass protection. Not functioning as well as a unit as it did at the end of last season.
D-line: A-. Nothing stands out, but the D-line was solid all night.
Linebackers: B+. JRM was a big loss, but our LBs played pretty well overall.
Secondary: A. The secondary seemed invisible all night; which is normally a sign that they are playing very well. Overall, the secondary was our best unit last night.
Special Teams: C-. All those ST mistakes! Good job by Medley and Evan Berry, though.
