Visiting Tips For The Shoe.
- Thread starter bubbag
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Frank Sinatra
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Hope everyone had a good time attending.
I have to tip my hat to Vols fans for showing up. It's the most visiting fans I have seen attend a game here so you should take pride in that and also making the playoffs.
As far as the game, I wasn't surprised with the win but was surprised by how it went down. I really wasn't expecting the game to play out like it did. As far as the reasons, I think it just came down to a talent differential in a few key spots. Smith is obviously a freshman phenom and nobody was expecting him to be this good this season. An average receiver probably would not have made those two TD catches. The consensus is that if he was eligible and were drafted today, he would possibly be the #1 pick. We just got lucky with acquiring one of those once-in-a-generation receivers. He has been playing like that all season and hopefully we get another two years out of him. I think Howard's play also was key. He tends to overthrow a lot but he was spot-on for most of the game. When we played Michigan, the ball was all over the place and he was lobbing INT. Our season has been like that. You never know which version of the team you are going to see. As far as our chances, I don't know. Depends on which team shows up to play. If we play like we did Saturday, I don't think we can be stopped. If we don't, we probably lose to Oregon. I am in wait-and-see mode before getting too excited.
As far as the cold, neither team usually plays in this type of cold so it was an equal field in that regards. It was pretty cold by halftime where temps dropped into the low 20's with windchills around 5F. It was colder for fans than players as we sit idle and aren't running around. I had my ski pants and thermals and it was cold. My toes were getting numb by the end and the hot chocolate I purchased at halftime was freezing up by the fourth quarter.
My honest take on the Vols after watching them play is that they are a couple key position players way from making a serious run. Not having watched them play this season, it's hard to say what was typical or atypical in this game. What stood out to me was that the defensive backs kept getting burned on the wheel route and this was resulting in a lot of mid-yardage pass plays that took the ball down the field. There seemed to be a lack of speed in the backfield. Whether this was atypical I don't know. The vols should probably be looking to shore up the defensive backfield and look to acquire a really quick receiver that can open up some distance against the defender. The receivers seemed to struggle with that and were having trouble getting open. We will likely see that with Oregon as their receivers are lights-out quick and last time we played, they were creating a lot of distance.
I have to tip my hat to Vols fans for showing up. It's the most visiting fans I have seen attend a game here so you should take pride in that and also making the playoffs.
As far as the game, I wasn't surprised with the win but was surprised by how it went down. I really wasn't expecting the game to play out like it did. As far as the reasons, I think it just came down to a talent differential in a few key spots. Smith is obviously a freshman phenom and nobody was expecting him to be this good this season. An average receiver probably would not have made those two TD catches. The consensus is that if he was eligible and were drafted today, he would possibly be the #1 pick. We just got lucky with acquiring one of those once-in-a-generation receivers. He has been playing like that all season and hopefully we get another two years out of him. I think Howard's play also was key. He tends to overthrow a lot but he was spot-on for most of the game. When we played Michigan, the ball was all over the place and he was lobbing INT. Our season has been like that. You never know which version of the team you are going to see. As far as our chances, I don't know. Depends on which team shows up to play. If we play like we did Saturday, I don't think we can be stopped. If we don't, we probably lose to Oregon. I am in wait-and-see mode before getting too excited.
As far as the cold, neither team usually plays in this type of cold so it was an equal field in that regards. It was pretty cold by halftime where temps dropped into the low 20's with windchills around 5F. It was colder for fans than players as we sit idle and aren't running around. I had my ski pants and thermals and it was cold. My toes were getting numb by the end and the hot chocolate I purchased at halftime was freezing up by the fourth quarter.
My honest take on the Vols after watching them play is that they are a couple key position players way from making a serious run. Not having watched them play this season, it's hard to say what was typical or atypical in this game. What stood out to me was that the defensive backs kept getting burned on the wheel route and this was resulting in a lot of mid-yardage pass plays that took the ball down the field. There seemed to be a lack of speed in the backfield. Whether this was atypical I don't know. The vols should probably be looking to shore up the defensive backfield and look to acquire a really quick receiver that can open up some distance against the defender. The receivers seemed to struggle with that and were having trouble getting open. We will likely see that with Oregon as their receivers are lights-out quick and last time we played, they were creating a lot of distance.
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