Problem winning road games, is it an isssue?-poll

How big of an issue is the questionable road losses

  • Total voters
    181
#1
JCVol00

JCVol00

Probably overreacting
Joined
Sep 24, 2019
Messages
5,774
Likes
28,504
#1
Each year under Heupel, it seems we absolutely lose a game or two on the road that we have no business losing- ‘21 Florida (sorta), ‘22 SC, ‘23 UF, ‘23 Mizzou, ‘24 Arkansas.

My question is, how big of an issue is this? Discuss…
 
  • Like
Reactions: vol94 and 90 Vol
#3
#3
If you want to win any kind of championship you have to be able to consistently win on the road. We usually have 1 or 2 games a year where we look completely unprepared away from Neyland. Struggling a little bit away from home is normal. Getting blown out is not. We didn’t get blown out at Arkansas last year but we could not move the ball when it mattered. That’s a coaching issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vol_guy, troopervol, vol94 and 2 others
#4
#4
VolinMichigan said:
If you want to win any kind of championship you have to be able to consistently win on the road. We usually have 1 or 2 games a year where we look completely unprepared away from Neyland. Struggling a little bit away from home is normal. Getting blown out is not. We didn’t get blown out at Arkansas last year but we could not move the ball when it mattered. That’s a coaching issue.
Click to expand...
The Arkansas game, something that everyone ignores is the fact we left the game with 1 or 2 timeouts in our pocket…Nico running out of bounds should’ve never happened, because we didnt HAVE to be in that position if when he connected with thornton with 20 seconds left a timeout was called, which it wasnt
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dansky
#5
#5
JCVol00 said:
Each year under Heupel, it seems we absolutely lose a game or two on the road that we have no business losing- ‘21 Florida (sorta), ‘22 SC, ‘23 UF, ‘23 Mizzou, ‘24 Arkansas.

My question is, how big of an issue is this? Discuss…
Click to expand...
I can excuse the 21 loss a Florida bc that was year 1, and 2023 to a Mizzou team that went 11-2. The 2022 USCjr loss is still one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen and the 24 Arkansas loss is completely unacceptable. To Heupel’s credit we won at Pitt and blew out LSU in 2022. I also think that we’ve played pretty well in Tuscaloosa every season that he’s been here, but we weren’t ready to win that type of game in 21 and if Milton is more accurate we’re potentially up 28-7 or 28-0 in 2023. This season has to be a year where we take another step by winning in Tuscaloosa or Gainesville or by getting UGA at home. 1 of those 3 things needs to happen
 
  • Like
Reactions: vol94fan, TrueOrange, Lekvolrrah and 2 others
#6
#6
It’s definitely noteworthy, but can be fixed. I think the highs of Heupels tenure (i.e. beating Bama and Florida twice, making the playoffs) have most people overlooking this issue. Last years loss to Arkansas is unacceptable and we CANNOT keep losing in the swamp.. feel like we’re cursed there. Anyways, he still has my trust but this is a recurring problem each year and the GREAT teams do not lose road games to average opponents like a Florida or Arkansas.. there’s still plenty of opportunities for improvement. With that being said, I doubt we win in Gainesville this year and don’t feel at comfortable about winning the other SEC road games..
 
#7
#7
It’s definitely a problem, yes.

It’s hard to win on the road in the SEC. I get it. But the difference between the good teams and the elite teams, is that the elite teams can win anywhere. If we want to be elite, we have to start winning on the road.

Going down to Tuscaloosa and winning this year would be a huge forward shift for the program.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vol_guy, troopervol and Orangeslide
#8
#8
JCVol00 said:
The Arkansas game, something that everyone ignores is the fact we left the game with 1 or 2 timeouts in our pocket…Nico running out of bounds should’ve never happened, because we didnt HAVE to be in that position if when he connected with thornton with 20 seconds left a timeout was called, which it wasnt
Click to expand...
I just checked, and we hit a 42 yard pass play with 0:35 left, 2 timeouts left and didnt call one, wasted 20 seconds between plays. THAT was the difference imo
 
  • Like
Reactions: VolDave53
#9
#9
There is no doubt that road losses have hurt their chances to keep playing in the postseason. USC 22 and Florida and Bama 23 kept them from playing in the CFP. We all know what happened in Columbia in 22 was one of the biggest and softest lain turds of all time.

A disastrous 2nd Q against the turds and an even worse second half against the bummers cost them a spot in the CFP in 23. You had to have both of course, but, but both games were winnable had they showed up to play and stayed focused.

Arkansas 24 kept them from hosting the CFP. Maybe they don't have to play OSU until a later round without that loss, and get a chance to advance out of the first round. At a minimum, they may have got OSU at home. Not saying the outcome would be different there, but I do think they play better at home so its reasonable to suspect it would have been a more competitive game.
 
#10
#10
JCVol00 said:
Each year under Heupel, it seems we absolutely lose a game or two on the road that we have no business losing- ‘21 Florida (sorta), ‘22 SC, ‘23 UF, ‘23 Mizzou, ‘24 Arkansas.

My question is, how big of an issue is this? Discuss…
Click to expand...
Until the Vols start winning on the road. It is a big issue
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vol_guy, Rocky Top T, Dansky and 1 other person
#11
#11
JCVol00 said:
I just checked, and we hit a 42 yard pass play with 0:35 left, 2 timeouts left and didnt call one, wasted 20 seconds between plays. THAT was the difference imo
Click to expand...
I think w/ a freshman QB we needed to call TO in that situation. I think the big criticism I have of Heupel is that he falls in love with the hurry up in late game situations a little too much and we mismanage the clock . I know he hates to change personnel, but the Arkansas game and Purdue games we absolutely blew opportunities to win those games by mismanaging those situations, when we should’ve taken a timeout.
 
  • Like
Reactions: troopervol and JCVol00
#15
#15
VOLfrombama said:
There is no doubt that road losses have hurt their chances to keep playing in the postseason. USC 22 and Florida and Bama 23 kept them from playing in the CFP. We all know what happened in Columbia in 22 was one of the biggest and softest lain turds of all time.

A disastrous 2nd Q against the turds and an even worse second half against the bummers cost them a spot in the CFP in 23. You had to have both of course, but, but both games were winnable had they showed up to play and stayed focused.

Arkansas 24 kept them from hosting the CFP. Maybe they don't have to play OSU until a later round without that loss, and get a chance to advance out of the first round. At a minimum, they may have got OSU at home. Not saying the outcome would be different there, but I do think they play better at home so its reasonable to suspect it would have been a more competitive game.
Click to expand...
Not only host a playoff game, but we would’ve made the SECCG if we beat arky
 
  • Like
Reactions: vol94, HeuperDrive and VOLfrombama
#16
#16
JCVol00 said:
Hendon tore his acl on a ****** field with a ****** playcall down 18. What our staff was thinking calling a speed option down 18 was beyond me
Click to expand...
It was the opening drive of the second half and with our offense that year that could have easily been a comeback. Our defense was completely lost though and couldnt stop anything so who knows.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JCVol00
#17
#17
What’s the average winning percentage in road games in the SEC? All of our losses/ Bamas losses and UGAs were on the road last year. I’m not sure that this is a problem that’s endemic to Tennessee. There are very few soft landing spots in this league.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 901 Orange
#18
#18
I think winning on the road is the next step we have to take on the journey back to being elite. I was hoping this was the year before Nico bolted. Maybe it still is. But we have to figure out how to travel in a conference this tough.
 
#19
#19
VolinMichigan said:
If you want to win any kind of championship you have to be able to consistently win on the road. We usually have 1 or 2 games a year where we look completely unprepared away from Neyland. Struggling a little bit away from home is normal. Getting blown out is not. We didn’t get blown out at Arkansas last year but we could not move the ball when it mattered. That’s a coaching issue.
Click to expand...
I don’t recall the details of each road loss, but penalties must be corrected. We get behind the chains with false start or holding penalties. And then on D, and offsides or holding penalty. While penalties occur, I think we were in the top three of the SEC. This current roster isn’t talented enough to overcome loss yards.
 
#21
#21
The only one of those that bothers me is the Arky game. We were head and shoulders better than them. The Florida loss in 21, florida was a better team, the SC game they cheated and everyone knows it. Go look at Rattlers stats by game that year, there is one anomaly. The florida game in 23 Milton played like crap, we deserved to lose. 23 Mizzu was a very good team.

SEC road games are hard, that is why we need a better metric for strength of schedule. The middle of the sec is better than the middle of any other conference. The top and bottoms are about the same.
If for no other reason, look at the size of the stadiums. More fans=more noise. Harder to execute.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SpookyAction
#22
#22
JCVol00 said:
Each year under Heupel, it seems we absolutely lose a game or two on the road that we have no business losing- ‘21 Florida (sorta), ‘22 SC, ‘23 UF, ‘23 Mizzou, ‘24 Arkansas.

My question is, how big of an issue is this? Discuss…
Click to expand...
It seems under Heupel we have improved our lot every season.
However, if i try, i can find stuff to bitch about.
 
#24
#24
It’s definitely an issue, should not have lost to Arkansas last year. And the Oklahoma game was ugly as well. If you want to be able to say that things are progressing this year with coach H we have got to win at Florida that is a game we cannot lose.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top