Were we overmatched, outcoached or just lackadaisical with today's effort?

[BowlBrother85]

Anyone who even casually follows recruiting knows that Georgia is far more talented than Tennessee at the moment. They have a roster stacked with high 4's and 5 star players, who are being well-developed with good coaching. They presented one on one mismatches for us that we couldn't scheme around ... and Hooker was off target today. There were some big play opportunities missed with bad execution.

Did anyone consider this a winnable game in August? The fact that so many people are disappointed with losing to Georgia on the road, is in itself a sign of how far this program has come in such a short time. They beat us 41-17 last year in Neyland, and I remember feeling pretty good about how we had played. LOL.

My point : We are getting better, but before we can beat Georgia we are going to have to close the talent gap a bit.

 

[Bainx]

Hey everbody! How’s it goin?

 

[BoonshillVol]

I had to hear the stupid Dawg cheers from my neighbor after the game.

Screw animal control just shoot the mutt

 

[VolArmy74]

They had the talent on defense to stay with our receivers, with our two main ones being hurt during the game to some extent, I know they kept playing but Hyatt and Tillman weren't 100 percent. The drenching rain came at a terrible time, reminded me of the Swamp any time we'd get behind in the 90s, the skies would open up for a while. But mostly it was about talent, and the ability to play straight up man defense and get pressure with the front 4 and absolutely overwhelm the play when they did decide to blitz.

The homefield helped them a lot, as it did us vs Bama. Winning on the road vs good teams is very hard in the SEC and with our typical luck, we had road games with the best team in the West and the best team in the East, both of whom are top 7 teams in the country after this weekend. We were fortunate to go 1-1 in them.

Georgia is fortunate that the best road team they played this season is a really bad Missouri team, and even then they struggled. They may or may not struggle with Kentucky. It will be cold most likely in Lexington but they should overwhelm with talent in the end. They honestly remind me of us in the 1990s, when we would have 95 percent of the teams we played beat before the ball was snapped.

 

[GVF]

HH though under much duress was indecisive at times when he had the chance to unload to open receivers. He was holding the ball too long. I saw two plays in the 4th he had open deep receivers two or three steps past the DB and didn’t make the pass instead trying to force the ball to the short side. As bad as we were dominated GA didn’t score much past half time. Just a field goal in 2nd half?. The opportunities were there to pull it out or go into OT. While Kirby had the DBs to execute a great defense scheme I don’t consider the game total domination. We held our own keeping them to 27 points.

 

[Bainx]

GA plays on a different level. Owned Tn from opening series.
ESPN got Tn off No. 1 and that is all that matters to them.
In one game: bye bye nat champ…bye bye Sec champ…hello modest bowl game.
Embarrasing

 

[EricStratton]

In the end it's a team effort.... hooker alone isn't responsible for losing. It's everyone involved that has to take blame. From coaches to players. The offensive line had huge mistakes today... evidenced by the 6-7 sacks. Wide receivers dropped passes or weren't getting opened. Running backs had little to no room to run. Which is also on the offensive line. Coaching wasn't great today. We changed nothing even tho hooker was getting thrown around. Hooker may have had an off game but it's far from just his fault.
It was the whole team that got beat today by a damn good opponent.

Missed too many passes. Had he not over thrown most passes we would be undefeated. This is in his hands and his hands only.

 

[VolCalls]

I think Kirby simply had a great gameplan to stop us. Lots of shifting and disguised blitzes that confused Hooker and the offensive Line. Sure, you could say we were outcoached. But what Huepel has done has been successful all year. Kirby was the one that stopped it. We didn't know what our weaknesses were until Georgia exploited them.

Also, it was a matter of execution. Georgia tackled really well and didn't give our offense any room to get things going.

So to answer your question, I think Georgia had the better ganeplan and sure we were overrated player to player as Georgia won the trenches.

Agreed. And yet many on this forum were convinced four days ago that Kirby was nervous and scared of us.

 

[volfeeva]

They had the talent on defense to stay with our receivers, with our two main ones being hurt during the game to some extent, I know they kept playing but Hyatt and Tillman weren't 100 percent. The drenching rain came at a terrible time, reminded me of the Swamp any time we'd get behind in the 90s, the skies would open up for a while. But mostly it was about talent, and the ability to play straight up man defense and get pressure with the front 4 and absolutely overwhelm the play when they did decide to blitz.

The homefield helped them a lot, as it did us vs Bama. Winning on the road vs good teams is very hard in the SEC and with our typical luck, we had road games with the best team in the West and the best team in the East, both of whom are top 7 teams in the country after this weekend. We were fortunate to go 1-1 in them.

Georgia is fortunate that the best road team they played this season is a really bad Missouri team, and even then they struggled. They may or may not struggle with Kentucky. It will be cold most likely in Lexington but they should overwhelm with talent in the end. They honestly remind me of us in the 1990s, when we would have 95 percent of the teams we played beat before the ball was snapped.

Totally agree their d backs were better at covering our receivers ---that was their key to winning ---to not give up the long bomb and make us throw short passes. And they beat us at our own game throwing deep when our d backs couldn't cover or just blown coverage. If you look at our wins this year we never really put away anyone except Kentucky and LSU. Our defense allowed a bad Florida to stay in the game and almost beat us with an on-side kick as time runs out. We only beat a down year Bama team in the last seconds. We've basically won by having shootouts and coming out on top. Today playing a good defense on the road, we ran out of magic.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

UGA is not as good as UT made them look and UT is not as bad as UGA made them look. The best team won though.

Does the fact we won the second half keep us in the discussion? Does anybody think Kirby told his guys to ease up? We have three games to add to our resume and make this our one bad game. Could fold. Time will tell.

 

[imbubbaspitcup]

This team was Flat & GA was fired up! They wanted it! We were outcoached!

 

[Pride85]

It was little bit of all of the above. Players struggled, staff struggled, crowd was loud and the weather even played a part in stifling things when we got a rhythm. I am still extremely proud of this team. Losing this way stinks, but this team has already checked off several boxes as to a "successful" season.

 

[cgrish]

Actually our pass protection was fine in the first half---but we struggled to run the ball and Hooker kept throwing 5 yard passes--either because he was making terrible decisions or because our receivers were not getting separation down the field. Could have been both--but I get a sense our receivers simply could not get open. Whatever we were running, it did not in any way fool or confuse Georgia.

imo, the better team won. I thought before the game our only chance to win would be to play our A game. We didnt bring our A game. I can remember 3 long passes where our receivers were wide open and Hooker has been hitting them them, but overthrew all 3. Hooker had his worse game of the season. With all this said, Hooker is a very good qb, and even the best have a bad game. I did notice we did not play up tempo near as much as we usually do and we always play better up tempo. I just wonder if this was our game plan. But even with a loss we have already exceeded my expections. I thought 8 or 9 wins this year would have been good and continue to build and improve.

 

[GMRobbins]

Big game jitters for a bunch of young guys seemed to be an issue. A gazillion motion calls did not help the offense. Georgia's secondary played tight and very well. Our's didn't. In many ways, Georgia's talent showed us how much further we need to go. The #1 rating, even for a few short days, will bring the Vols future rewards in the recruiting trenches. It's been a turn-around season and it still ain't over. Enjoy the ride!

 

[PowerWookie]

Our Margin for error was very small due to George’s talent and we made too many mistakes.

The offsides were particularly a problem. Gave us too many third and longs. Prevented offense from flowing

also
Pass protection was poor, fumbles, bad passes, receivers not playing elite ball and d with blown coverages and more missed tackles than normal.

too many mistakes. We beat ourselves

 

[PowerWookie]

we can get a second Chance
let’s just take care of business

 

[PowerWookie]

And that dang lucky azz punt was a killer

 

[feathersax]

This team was Flat & GA was fired up! They wanted it! We were outcoached!

SO wrong.

 

[tsad06]

I think one thing, not sure if already mentioned was lack of getting our tempo going. Too much stop and go (penalties, reviews, injuries, etc) re-watched it this morning. My initial reaction when watching yesterday live was we simply got dominated (similar to how we did Kentucky), but then watching it this morning I was more frustrated with just the lack of simple execution. I counted 3 drives in the 2nd half, we nickel and dime down the field but then illegal formation, false start, just simple stuff. Shot ourselves in the foot more than Georgia imposing their will. I mean Ringo making the pick in end zone hurt (great play by him). But I thought our defense did an admirable job keeping us afloat and still in the game. But yes to what everyone has said earlier, oline struggling set the chain reaction of everything else. Just wasn’t our day, but I will disagree with some of you saying well we dodge the SECCG, personally I’d rather be playing in that Bc in that s scenario win or lose we still go to the CFP.

 

[17Vols]

Oline set the tone. They struggled thus Hooker struggled as well.

Yup. No push in the run game, constant pressure in Hookers face, and back breaking penalties. That’s not on the QB

 

[ddubb76]

That might be true, but we won’t beat this team in the playoff if we played ten games. They took care of our team as casually as we took care of UK

I disagree. We played our worst game, they played their best. If we play 10 times we win at least 5

 

[imbubbaspitcup]

SO wrong.

They had a blue print for us!

 

[ALLVOL 4LIFE]

I’m just gonna say it and let the chips fall where they may..as bad as it stings, this game wasn’t at all out of reach in a different environment. Neutralize the crowd noise somewhat (8 pre snap penalties) and consider the 3 sure TDs that were a bit overthrown, and this game could have gone either way. A second shot at GA on a neutral field, and I like our chances much better. We lost by 2 TDs in one of the most hostile environments you’ll find anywhere & and absolutely nothing bounced our way. Not terrible.

Could not have been said any better!

 

[Clayton]

Does the fact we won the second half keep us in the discussion? Does anybody think Kirby told his guys to ease up? We have three games to add to our resume and make this our one bad game. Could fold. Time will tell.

You didn't come even remotely close to winning anything. UGA dominated both sides of the ball. They focused on clock management the second half and didn't take any unnecessary risks (good coaching) because they didn't need to. Stetson only threw 4 passes the second half.

 

[BigEPvol]

Understandably there is a lot of deflation in this comment section.

A couple of points to remember. Pre season there were many people saying that they didn’t see a path to 8-4 or even 7-5 for the vols. All of a sudden the expectations rose to national championship? If you told the average vol fan we would go 11-1 in the regular season this year at the end of last year, all would agree that was ahead of schedule.

Second ESPN kept comparing Heupel to Bob stoops, Urban Meyer and Jim tressell. Talking about coaches winning championships in their second year. However none of those programs were in the same situation with an NCAA investigation and the transfer portal with the ability to lose the majority of your highest ranked talent and starters across multiple positions.

What CJH has done in the timeframe is nothing short of amazing. We still can make the playoff as we likely end up at 6 in the second CFP poll.
TCU loses to Texas next week, Michigan or Ohio state one loses in the last game of the season, we have time to climb back by winning out as other teams losses mount.

Will the committee put Oregon the likely PAC 12 champ over us when their loss to Georgia was more humiliating? Clemson got curbstomped by Notre Dame. Clemson has been given undue consideration anyways given the nature of the games they won this season. Add this loss the ACC is not going to be represented in playoffs this year. TCU loses the big12 won’t have a lock PAC doesn’t have the SOR. So it becomes does the committee take the loser of Ohio state Michigan over the vols?

If Michigan loses absolutely not, they have no SOS. If Ohio state loses yes they still go.

The only lock right now is Georgia, book their tickets. However I don’t think if we play then again the game goes the exact same way. Especially on a neutral site. We would be more prepared for what they intend to do. We will be less affected by crowd noise, and I doubt we miss as many open receivers as we did yesterday.

Our vols didn’t play their best and Georgia did. Georgia is clearly more talented overall, but not unbeatable. Hold your heads up and remember this is a great season and by no means are we out of contention at this point. By all reckonings we are well ahead of where we should be and the future is bright Orange.