The Day After Tennessee’s 30-13 win over Austin Peay
Tennessee is 2-0 heading to Florida to start league play following a surprising 30-13 win over Austin-Peay. We look back on the Vols victory with The Day After.
Hot and Not
HOT
Jaylen Wright— Tennessee’s tailback remains the best offensive weapon for the Vols. Wright it the century mark for the second straight week and for the second straight week averaged over 9 yards a carry. Wright’s patience and vision in the run game has been impressive. He’s certainly living up to the hype he received the entire off-season and in pre-season camp. Wright has 233 yards rushing on 25 carries the first two weeks.
Defensive front — In week one, the defensive front had 4 sacks. They had 4 more against Austin-Peay. They have given up 174 yards on 74 carries (2.4 yards a carry). In week one 10 different defensive linemen recorded tackles. Against Austin-Peay, 12 different defensive linemen recorded tackles.
Aaron Beasley — Simply put, Beasley is a heck of a football player, who has found his home in Tim Banks’ defense. Beasley was outstanding Saturday night. He had 9 tackles, 2 sacks and 5 total TFL’s. Beasley’s film study and his eyes lead to great play recognition. He can get side line to sideline and he times his blitzes very well.
“I think he’s one of the best backers in the country for sure,” safety Wesley Walker said. “He’s the best backer I’ve ever played with. He comes to work every day. It’s not really a surprise. I know everyone saw he capped the year off in the Orange Bowl. That’s the player he is.”
NOT
The passing game— For two weeks now, the passing game has been “out of synch”, has struggled to “settle in” and for a variety of reasons apparently.
“It can be on us, make sure that we try to do some things specifically to get the personnel to fit into to the ball game early,” head coach Josh Heupel said. “Some of it is them releasing some of that anxiety, energy, nervousness, whatever it might be. And settling in.”
They simply haven’t settled in. In two games, Tennessee’s passing game is 6 of 19 (32%) for 116 yards and a touchdown on throws of 10+ yards. Against Austin-Peay they were 1 for 8.
3rd down offense — Going back to the end of last year, third downs have become a struggle for the offense. Against Virginia, Tennessee was just 5 of 13 on third down they were 3 of 12 on third down against Austin-Peay.
Penalties — Let me first day, I thought the officials had a rough night. The penalty on Omarr Norman-Lott was a rough call. The no call on pass interference on Squirrel White was bad. But Tennessee jumped off sides twice on defense and had two false starts on the offensive line. And they had a couple of pass interference penalties totaling 10 flags for 88 yards.
Defining moments
Joe Milton’s start —Tennessee’s senior opened the game going 1 for 7 for 11 yards. Maybe there were a couple of drops, but Milton didn’t hit anyone in the hands in the first two drives other than Jaylen Wright on a horizontal pass. It was clear the goal was to get the passing game going. Tennessee threw it 5 of their first 7 plays.
The middle 8 —For the second straight week, the Vols managed the middle 8 perfectly. Facing 4th and 4 at the Austin-Peay 19, Heupel chose not to go for it and settled for the field goal to tie the game at 6. The defense forced a quick 3 and out getting the ball back with 2:19 to play and three time outs. The Vols drove 67 yards in 11 plays to take a 13-6 lead into the half. The opened the second half with a 5 play touchdown drive to make it 20-6 and end any upset thoughts the Governor’s might have had.
The delay — As Josh Heupel said there was nothing you could do about it but it was an awkward start to the football game with the lightning delay. With no running through the T it took the build up out of things. What effect it had on Tennessee’s play is up for debate but it wasn’t normal.
Austin-Peay converts 4th and 2 — On the Governor’s opening drive backed up at their won 33 went for it on 4th and 2 converting on a 45 yard run sending an early message they weren’t going to be timid about how they approached the game.
Inside the numbers
49% — The percentage of Milton’s 228 yards passing that came on throws behind the line of scrimmage. Milton completed 45% of his passes on throws over the line of scrimmage.
7 — Number of sacks by Tennessee’s defense. They now have 11 in two games. The defensive front has 8 of those 11.
9.3 — Average yards per carry by Jaylen Wright who has had back to back 100 yard games and has 233 yards on just 25 rushes this season.
4 — Number of 20+ yard passing plays on the year for Tennessee. Last year they had 56 completions of 20+ yards.
Gameball
The two best players on the field for Tennessee were Jaylen Wright and Aaron Beasley. Wright could certainly get more touches, but my game ball is going to Beasley. He was just outstanding and is the heart and soul of the Vols defense. In two games, Beasley has 12 tackles (6 for loss), 2 sacks, and a PBU.
Biggest question/concern moving forward
All the questions are about the Vol offense. The defense struggled in the fourth quarter. They didn’t tackle well and gave up a big play, but the defense is improved from a year ago.
The question as the Vols head to the Swamp is where is the offense specially the passing game.
Tennessee hasn’t been able to get the vertical passing game going. In fact it’s been non-existent. Joe Milton’s passing game has been side to side and behind the line of scrimmage. Can you win with that being the the passing game ? And will there’s plenty of focus on Milton which there should be, the offensive line wasn’t great in pass protection on Saturday either as Austin-Peay showed plenty of different looks and blitzed from a variety of different places on Saturday.
But the story all week with the Vols opening SEC play on the road is whether or not Joe Milton and the receivers can lead this team to a win with the passing game. A passing game that has been unable to stretch the field vertically through two games.
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