Watched that game again @ 2 weeks ago. Like the article said "many" have forgotten how close we were to losing that game. We jumped on them early and were about to run away with this game. Then our offense went cold and defense got porous down the stretch. Sound familiar?
USC did a great job getting back in that and so did their interim coaches. Thankfully Malik Foreman made a legendary play to save the game at the last moment. Had USC came back to win in that fashion, I'm not sure Vol Nation could have born to pain of yet another 4th Q collapse. It would have been the #1 "talking point" of the off season, plus our Bowl game would have been weaksauce, so even winning that would have been a little hallow.
Can't see us getting much playoff talk after an 8-5 season and weak bowl win. Watching that game reminded my to "pump the brakes" a little on some of this "playoffs or bust" talk that's out there. We had better improve in 2016.