Presnap penalties, poor tackling, and miscommunication highlight Tennessee’s struggles in Week 12
Knoxville, Tenn. – Wins camouflage and losses magnify. The same errors that were overlooked in victories are now the focal point in a loss.
While we’ve highlighted concerns in Tennessee’s rush defenses even in wins, those preseason questions surrounding Tennessee’s pass defense took a back seat in part to a recent win streak for the Vols.
This week the magnified glass is on the second, and more so the third level of defense.
The lack of pressure, defensive adjustment, and tackling led to Georgia’s quarterback, Carson Beck having one of his best games of the season.
Beck threw for his third-highest pass total in a single game this season with 347 yards. He did so by completing 25 of his 40 attempts. 11 of those were explosive plays that accounted for 257 yards.
In four of the five games where he’s attempted 40 passes, he’s thrown at least one interception.
The one time he didn’t it came against the Vols.
It was also the first time he finished a game without an interception since Week 5 against Auburn.
Tennessee didn’t have an answer.
“End of the day, they got a hat on a hat and protected well and did that in different ways,” said Josh Heupel. “Some of it was heavy play-action with some extra bodies in there. Some of it was on drop-back pass. End of the day, we didn’t get home. We’ve got to affect the quarterback. He was too comfortable for most of the night.”
The two areas that are most deserving of the magnified glass treatment; presnap penalties and poor tackling.
That duo compounded on a 3rd and 8 with 00:16 to go in the first quarter with Georgia at their own 27-yard line.
James Pearce Jr.’s neutral zone infraction gave Beck and the Dawgs’ offense a free play, which they capitalized on thanks to poor tackling on the backend.
UGA’s Dominic Lovett caught a pass on the right side with two Vols, Andre Turrentine and Jermod McCoy, in coverage.
As soon as Lovett came down the catch, the Vols had bodies on him.
However, instead of wrapping him up or trying to break up the pass, McCoy and Turrentine dropped a shoulder to try and stop Lovett.
Didn’t work.
With a chance to get off the field on third down, an offsides penalty and poor tackling led to an explosive 38-yard play.
Six plays later; a Georgia touchdown.
No question, going for the tackle or the ball is a split-second decision. However, simply dropping a shoulder when the play is near the middle of the field and not the sideline, can’t be one of the options.
That type of play or going for the ankles reoccurs weekly.
“That’s ball-me-man relationships and being a player and understanding where you’re at and can I go make a play or do I got to defend the man and make a tackle,” said Heupel. “It’s called being a player. There’s some really good things as far as our coverage, second and third level, the other night. There’s some competitive plays that they made, which you play good teams, that’s going to happen, too. Then there’s some things, could be our eyes on the snap – whatever it might be – where we’re just a little bit out of position. Some of those things are what I was talking about as far as how we can be better and control our controllables.”
Inconsistency in that decision-making led to Tennessee registering its fewest total tackles on the season at just 52.
However, Tennessee did manage to come up with six PBUs which ties their most on the year. That stat highlights where Tennessee can be when they’re playing assignment sound.
Penalties, penalties, penalties.
Tennessee continues to be one of the most penalized teams in the country with 79 total flags.
Saturday they had nine and five were presnap. Unsurprisingly it’s one of the main areas Heupel needs to see his team grow.
“The ordinary, everyday things, do them at a high level. It’s signal recognition. It’s alignment. It’s no pre-snap penalties. It’s not changing the way the game’s played, and there’s just too many instances of Tennessee hurting Tennessee on Saturday. And that’s not taking anything away from Georgia, but the things that we can control, we’ve got to be better at. Ultimately, when you play good on good, those things are going to have a huge impact on the game,” said Heupel.