Tennessee fells to No. 1 Georgia 41-17 Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium.
The Vols continued their red-hot first quarters, jumping out to a 10-7 lead before the Bulldogs overpowered Tennessee with their depth and athleticism.
If you need a reminder on how Pro Football Focus works, read the opening of the Bowling Green grades.
Let’s see how the Vols graded out.
Elite grade = 90-100, All-Conference = 85-89, Starter = 70-84, Backup = 60-69, Replaceable = 60 >
Offensive Grades (minimum 25 plays — 30% of offensive snaps)
WR Cedric Tillman — 75.6 (80 plays)
WR Jalin Hyatt — 70.1 (25 plays)
WR Velus Jones Jr. — 65.0 (64 plays)
RB Jabari Small — 62.3 (64 plays)
WR Ramel Keyton — 59.7 (77 plays)
OT Cade Mays — 59.4 (71 plays)
OG Javontez Spraggins — 57.3 (89 plays)
OG Jerome Carvin — 54.7 (63 plays)
TE Princeton Fant — 54.5 (57 plays)
OG Ollie Lane — 54.3 (26 plays)
C Cooper Mays — 53.7 (89 plays)
QB Hendon Hooker — 53.6 (71 plays)
OT Darnell Wright — 52.2 (89 plays)
TE Jacob Warren — 49.5 (28 plays)
Tennessee’s receivers led the way on the day and that shouldn’t be a surprise as they were the only players that didn’t have to deal with Georgia’s elite front seven. The Vols three highest graded players were all receivers and it is the top four if you count JaVonta Payton who was injured in the first quarter.
Cedric Tillman earned the highest grade and it’s surprising he didn’t grade out better than 75.6 given his 10 catches for 200 yard game. Ramel Keyton did a nice job in his first extended action of the season, playing in place of Payton.
Watching it live it looked like Hendon Hooker’s worst game of the season and it proved to be his worst grade of the season too. His 53.6 grade was lifted by a 70.9 run game. Hooker earned a 45.7 pass grade.
Finally, running back Jaylen Wright earned a 60.0 grade in 24 plays.
Defensive Grades (minimum of 21 plays — 30% of defensive snaps)
STAR Theo Jackson — 65.2 (68 plays)
DT Da’Jon Terry — 63.9 (23 plays)
S Trevon Flowers — 63.1 (70 plays)
CB Warren Burrell — 62.5 (49 plays)
DE Byron Young — 61.2 (45 plays)
CB Alontae Taylor — 60.4 (71 plays)
S Jaylen McCollough — 58.7 (73 plays)
DT Matthew Butler — 58.5 (54 plays)
DE Caleb Tremblay — 57.2 (44 plays)
DT Omari Thomas — 54.7 (32 plays)
DE Roman Harrison — 47.0 (26 plays)
LB Aaron Beasley — 45.9 (57 plays)
DE Ja’Quain Blakely — 43.6 (29 plays)
CB Kamal Hadden — 41.1 (26 plays)
LB Jeremy Banks — 39.9 (62 plays)
LB Solon Page III — 27.5 (22 plays)
As the numbers indicate, it was not a pretty day for Tennessee’s defense. Not one player graded out with a starter grade or better, six players graded out as backups and 10 players graded out as replaceable.
Tennessee’s linebackers continue to really struggle. That group was a major question mark coming into the season and was made even more of one when Juwan Mitchell was lost for the season. The trio of Beasley, Banks and Page held up for a while but have really gotten exposed the last few weeks.
Da’Jon Terry had one of his better games of the season — especially considering the opponent — earning the second best defensive grade in 23 plays.
Finally, Tyler Baron played the least amount of snaps of his season, earning a 48.3 grade in 20 plays.
