nicksjuzunk
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Tennessee returns to Knoxville, a little less "#1" than they were a week ago after playing arguably their worst game of the season. The good news is they welcome the 4th cat based team of the season in the Missouri Tigers. Missouri is not necessarily "the cat's meow" and will likely find themselves trying to claw their way to victory. The Vols will hope to catch them taking a noon nap in the sun and leave them licking themselves and possibly coughing up hairballs. Ok, I'm done. Let's move on.
Keys to Victory:
1. Rebound, don't Relapse: Tennessee will look to rebound from their loss to Georgia with college football's biggest prize still on the table for them. They cannot afford to come in unfocused and dejected following last week, and based on everything we have seen from a Heupel led team, this should not be an issue. Expect the Vols to come in ready to roll.
2. Finish them Early: Last year, Tennessee dumped 28 on Missouri in the first quarter and that was all she wrote. Missouri is not going to see 28 points but they WILL see Tennessee score 28 points. Although Mizzou averages 23 points per game, a closer look reveals that in conference, it's even worse. They are sitting right at 18.33 points per game. That is not going to cut it against the Vols. Lay it on early, and lay it on often.
3. De-blitzifying the D: Although Missouri is warm slaw on offense, they have a salty defense that features a lot of blitzes, especially from the safety position. Expect the Tigers to copy exactly what Georgia was doing to try to break down the Vols OL. The good news is, they don't have the dudes Georgia does, the bad news is, a well designed blitz often sees dude's proceed untouched to the QB. Hooker will need to have great pocket awareness and Heupel will need to keep some bailout check down options available if the wide receivers cannot beat the secondary.
4. Break the Secondary: Above all things that doomed Tennessee on Saturday against Georgia, I believe the Georgia secondary was the biggest factor. They locked up man-to-man on the Tennessee receivers and we couldn't do anything with it. They were exceptional. Kirby Smart said that the plan was to just take a defensive holding penalty if they were about to get beat on a deep ball. It's a really smart strategy, and it will be interesting to see if Missouri employs in this week. Last year, the corner backs were already very physical and had a ton of penalties vs. Tennessee receivers. This year, I would expect similar results.
Prediction: Missouri does not have the dogs to run with the Vols. Brady Cook is not great. He has more interceptions than touchdowns and has accumulated 18 sacks. Tennessee is strong enough in the run defense to keep them from doing much there either. I like to think Coach Heupel carries a little extra salt in his pocket against Missouri. He was there for several seasons as the OC, ran up and down the field scoring and when it came time for a coaching change, they pulled 1 year head coach veteran Eliah Drinkwitz out of Appalachian State for his supposed offensive acumen. I'm not sure, but I bet Heupel would have taken the job. Well, Heupel is averaging in a half what Missouri averages in a game. He will pour it on and make them remember when they could have called Batman, they called Clark Kent without a cape.
TN 44
Mizzou 17
>50
<20
