I believe our competition was actually better and many are predicting UT to win the east. Maybe the defense was not as bad as it looked. Here's hoping.
Mighty Big orange gave up 30 to Bowling Green
- Thread starter TNCatfanforever
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We put up 59 points and had 399 yards rushing.
....and scored 59......with 399 yards rushing
We have no room to say anything about another teams performance. I'm no Tennessee fan but we gave up 33 points and was out gained in yards by a team from the sun belt. That's with them turning it over 3 times. Just think if they hadn't. We're probably on the losing end. Our defense couldn't stop a good high school team right now. Imagine What the running backs in the SEC will do to us.
A Sun Belt team which has had 4x nine win seasons. They won all their bowl match ups.
Our defense forced turnovers. There's a difference between them messing up and us forcing the matter.
I imagine we'll do a lot better when we get our talented trio back on defense: Jabari, Hatcher, and Flannigan. Want good run defense? Kinda hard to do when you have true freshmen playing a key position for that aspect. They need to be eased into the position. They weren't, and ULL took advantage of our youth at those positions by embarrassing them constantly.
Blah blah blah. the problem with your logic the defense actually DID force those turnovers. The 4th quarter collapse had more to do with the offense than anything else. It's a team game.
The rushing stats are my issue. UT did well on both sides of the ball in that effort.
Pass defense can be adjusted, rush defense is tough as it is more ability than scheme - you have to be strong enough to hold or shed blockers on the line and the lbers have to be fast and strong enough to fill gaps.
I hope our kids that missed this game make a huge difference when they return.
Pass defense can be adjusted, rush defense is tough as it is more ability than scheme - you have to be strong enough to hold or shed blockers on the line and the lbers have to be fast and strong enough to fill gaps.
I hope our kids that missed this game make a huge difference when they return.
Linebacker corp is the only group on defense I'm willing to say played poorly. They didn't just play poorly, they played atrocious. The D Line was not pushed off the ball and manhandled like some posters have been saying. Not even sure where that started. What was observed
The defensive line got pushed once or twice, but I like to think that our boys are shaking off the rust. They did a very good job overall and got into the backfield a few times. They took up blockers and shut down running lanes on more than a few occasions. We'll be fine.
Our linebackers were true freshmen and they are still learning to make reads and perform adjustments. The game is moving incredibly fast for them at this level which accounts for missing assignments and blowing tackles by a fraction of a second. Veterans in there will help them acclimate to the baptism by fire.
Our linebackers were true freshmen and they are still learning to make reads and perform adjustments. The game is moving incredibly fast for them at this level which accounts for missing assignments and blowing tackles by a fraction of a second. Veterans in there will help them acclimate to the baptism by fire.
I agree they were not manhandled, I think many of us would have liked to have seen us manhandle them, and we definitely did not on either side of the ball (pass protection was good).
We will play much better lines than ULL.
I think UT has got to be concerned about the defense. The offense was excellent, but the defense was not. The defense was supposed to be the strength of the team this year so it's very surprising that they weren't better. It's unclear why they didn't play better. I know there were a lot of injuries, but if I have Oklahoma coming to Knoxville in Week 2, I'm a little worried if I'm Butch Jones.
ULL and Bowling Green are essentially equals, in my opinion, but neither program is as good as the SEC teams that UT and UK will be facing week in and week out in conference play. Bowling Green doesn't have much of a defense, but their offense is better than ULL's. Where UT's defense really struggled was in the secondary, though it is one of the strongest, deepest units on the team. If that continues, teams who can air the ball out will have a field day. UT's rush defense looked good and with that offense, if they can get the secondary playing better they will win a lot of games. If not, it will be yet another mediocre season on Rocky Top.
ULL and Bowling Green are essentially equals, in my opinion, but neither program is as good as the SEC teams that UT and UK will be facing week in and week out in conference play. Bowling Green doesn't have much of a defense, but their offense is better than ULL's. Where UT's defense really struggled was in the secondary, though it is one of the strongest, deepest units on the team. If that continues, teams who can air the ball out will have a field day. UT's rush defense looked good and with that offense, if they can get the secondary playing better they will win a lot of games. If not, it will be yet another mediocre season on Rocky Top.
Bowling Green is the MAC favorite. They are a legit team who will win at least 9 games. They are far better than UL Lafayette. Just saying.
That offense UT saw yesterday will be one of the best all year we play. Also we had a couple starters that will be back on D for next week. BG kept picking on our nickel back and smoked him all night.
...and I'll rephrase it to say Northern Illinois is probably the true MAC favorite, but they have dominated the league so much the last 5 years, I like someone to upset them this year, either BG or Western Michigan.
MSU gave up points to WMU. Oregon gave up 40+ to an FCS.
Like UT, and UK, they all are sitting today at 1-0.
And, Bowling Green has had a good offense in the past.
Like UT, and UK, they all are sitting today at 1-0.
And, Bowling Green has had a good offense in the past.
Our D looked bad but we played 90% of our defensive players (per coach). They put 2nd and 3rd teams in very early in the game to get them valuable reps for down the road. If we'd of only played our "A" players BG wouldn't of scored more than 17. They only scored 10 in the second half.
I hear you Caveman, but...
MSU gave up 18 yards rushing.
Oregon gave up 100 yds on the ground and rushed for 485!
I would much rather give up points on big pass plays and manhandle the other team the first game. You can work on pass defense easier than getting stronger and more athletic in your front 7.
But East Washington had more plays than Oregon, dominated the clock and had about 450 passing yards. I did not see the game, but assume those were not big bombs, but an offense that marched, but by passing.
Sure, that is not good. But that doesn't mean that Oregon lacks size or athleticism. And in our conference the line of scrimmage is critical, if you cannot stop the run you are dead. If you can push the defense off the line you keep their offense off the field and rest your defense, and if you have a lead you can keep it.
Yup. Most of the runs up the middle were shut down, ULL did most of its damage on the outside where we failed to set the edge time and time again.
