Four Quick Takeaways: Tennessee’s Defense Delivers As Vols Defeat Texas A&M

Tennessee’s offense played its worst game of the season to date, but it didn’t matter as the Vols’ defense dominated the Aggies and Tennessee earned a 20-13 win at Neyland Stadium.

Here’s four quick takeaways.

Squandered Scoring Opportunities

Tennessee’s offense moved the football well in the first half and did it despite Joe Milton playing poorly. The Vols didn’t have a single drive that didn’t gain at least 20 yards. However, Tennessee frequently squandered scoring opportunities in costly fashion.

Milton ran out of bounds short of the sticks on a third down free play on the Vols’ opening drive. The bad decision was just the start of Tennessee’s issues capitalizing on scoring opportunities.

Tennessee’s second drive ended with a turnover on downs in the Aggies’ red zone as Milton held onto the bal too long on a roll out and had nowhere to go with the football. The Vols overcame Ramel Keyton dropping an easy touchdown on its ensuing drive to score it’s only touchdown of the first half.

The Vols moved the ball well on each of their final two drives of the first half but Charles Campbell missed a 51-yard field goal and Ollie Lane held twice in three plays to push Tennessee out of field goal range a drive later as the Vols’ failed to score either drive.

The theme continued in the second half when Tennessee turned it over on downs in scoring range on its opening drive of the third quarter.

Despite totaling 164 first half yards, including 126 rushing yards, Tennessee totaled just seven points because of its inability to complete drives on Texas A&M’s side of the field.

Tennessee Flips The Game With Special Teams

Special teams is the forgotten part of football but it can have a massive impact on a football game. With its offense struggling, Tennessee flipped the game with two fantastic third quarter special teams plays.

Tennessee’s second drive of the third quarter ended with how a lot of them ended against the Aggies. The Vols stalled out at midfield and sent Jackson Ross out to punt. Ross had a terrific punt and Dee Williams raced down the field and made a nice play to down it at the one-yard line.

Two runs and an incomplete pass left Texas A&M right where they started. With everyone expecting Tennessee to go for the block, they set up the return instead.

The decision paid dividends. Williams made a number of Texas A&M players miss on his way to a 39-yard touchdown that gave Tennessee its first lead of the day.

In a game where its offense couldn’t score, the special teams touchdown was massive.

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Joe Milton III Falters, Tennessee’s Passing Attack Non Existent

Texas A&M has one of the SEC’s worst secondaries but the Vols were unable to take advantage as Milton performed poorly and the passing offense faltered with him.

Tennessee’s passing game couldn’t find a rhythm the entire game, but the Vols ran the ball well enough to move the ball against the Aggies. But Milton made a few untimely mistakes that hurt the Vols in important spots.

Milton’s most backbreaking mistake came with Tennessee leading by one late and knocking on the door early in the fourth quarter. With Tennessee facing second-and-nine at the Aggies’ 16-yard line, the super senior quarterback never saw the Texas A&M safety and was intercepted throwing the ball into double coverage in the end zone.

On an already bad day for Milton, the mistake was a back breaking one that once again flipped the game. Milton ended the day 11-of-22 for 100 yards, one touchdown and one interception. If you told anyone that stat line before the game, it would have been shocking for Tennessee to win.

But that’s what happened.

Tennessee’s Defense Carries The Vols To Victory

The Vols’ defense has been good at times in Josh Heupel’s tenure. But it hadn’t carried Tennessee to a win in the last 2.5 years. That changed against the Aggies as Tennessee’s defense played a fantastic game and helped the Vols overcome a bad offensive showing.

Texas A&M went 80 yards on seven plays for a touchdown on its first drive of the game before Tennessee made life extremely difficult on the Aggies the rest of the way.

Tennessee’s defensive front was fantastic again, holding Texas A&M to just 54 rushing yards while also providing consistent pressure on Aggies’ quarterback Max Johnson.

The Vols’ defense all but iced the game with Johnson sailed a third-and-10 pass into Gabe Jeudy-Lally’s hands for an interceptions. The BYU transfer returned it to the six-yard line but that wasn’t good enough for the Vols’ offense to ice the game. Tennessee had to settle for a field goal making its defense get one more stop to seal the win.

But Tennessee did it with ease as its pass rush made life challenging on Johnson and Kamal Hadden iced the game with a fourth down interception.