Good Day All,
There was a great crowd last night in Knoxville from the start of the game to its finish. Everything was in place for a great Fall evening of Southern College Football. At the end the crowd was both disappointed and emotionally spent. I felt that we had put our all emotionally into supporting the Vols and were worn out when the game was over.
The team has improved in so many ways and watching the replay a theme stood out to me about all facets of this game. Individuals in every part of the team made outstanding plays, but they were inconsistent. Think about this line from Shakespeare:
“A horse, a horse, my Kingdom for a horse…” Great play line!
Read it this way:
“A pass completion, a pass completion, my game for a pass completion..”, or “A run block, a run block, my game for a run block..”, or “A kick, a kick, my game for a kick..”, or “A tackle, a tackle, my game for a tackle..”
The strongest calls would have been for one more first down, one more tackle for a lost, one more FG kick not missed, or one less penalty. Any one of these would have given the Vols time off the clock that would have won the game in regulation time.
After the first period on offense, we failed to get good yardage on first down without losing it to penalties. In the second half starting with poor yardage on first down we passed on 2nd and 3rd down for 4 straight possessions. All eight passes were incomplete and resulted in punts. Three offensive possessions were under a minute thirty seconds and one under 45 seconds. When the Vols tried to run on first down, there were breakdowns on the line’s blocking resulting in no gain or losses on the running plays.
Results, we did not score in the 2nd Half to put the game away. The defense came back on the field too quickly for three quarters. That slowed them and that helped the Sooners Offense. Oklahoma was also able to flip the field position on the Vols and get into a shorter field situation for their offense.
We have to give Oklahoma’s defense credit for making both good calls against our plays and to their players for making the plays they needed to make to get the ball for their offense. Their QB played one great game especially in the second half. I hope they checked his uniform for Vaseline, he was really hard to tackle.
I watched the replay and Butch’s show. I listen to, read, and watched the player’s post game remarks. These kids all really feel that they let this game get away by not making the plays they could make as individuals in all areas of the team’s plays. Butch said it all in the words, “They feel it.” One reason the fans felt so flat leaving the stadium was the feeling of … just one play wins it and not getting that play was emotionally deflating.
Some of the best teams in the Vol’s long football history have rebounded from losses like this to have storied seasons. I am hoping and think that this game will be a springboard for the
SEC schedule. Let’s get those Gators!!
GO VOLS!
TNBILL
