Why do we play so bad on the road?

#1
T

temptn

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#1
Do we not have a good pre game routine? The team always seems tired. Do they stay up all night playing video games? A bad meal before each game? Do we need a team sports psychologist? A serious problem that needs an answer, and I don't have one. Maybe someone inside the program knows how they prepare for an away game versus how other teams prepare, Georgia.
 
#5
#5
temptn said:
Do we not have a good pre game routine? The team always seems tired. Do they stay up all night playing video games? A bad meal before each game? Do we need a team sports psychologist? A serious problem that needs an answer, and I don't have one. Maybe someone inside the program knows how they prepare for an away game versus how other teams prepare, Georgia.
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I think you may be on to something; because we look like a totally different team on the road vs at home.
 
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#6
#6
Because we played all the bad teams at home this year. If we'd travel to Austin Peay and UTSA and played Bama at home it'd look a lot different.
 
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#7
#7
Home teams have an advantage for a reason. It's tough to win on the road, especially against top 25 programs. I'm sure the teams that play us in Neyland are asking the same question.

But to analyze it a bit deeper, I think alot of it has to do with the extra obstacles our offense has to face on the road. For one, Huepel's offense is centered around the run, and they are not as efficient when they have to lean on the pass alot. For example, Its common for the offense to find itself behind the sticks due to false starts, miscommunications, and amped up defenders who make negative plays. When that happens, the offense has to lean on the pass, and its on the QB to makeuo those yards. Unfortunately pur offense doesn't have as good of personnel this year to overcome those situations.

Defense on the other hand, is a bit more mind boggling. They have looked a step slow or apathetic at times when they are away. Banks has to do a better job of getting his defense ready to play on the road. It seems they have some really emotional guys on that side of the ball that can be undisciplined, especially when on the road.
 
#8
#8
temptn said:
Do we not have a good pre game routine? The team always seems tired. Do they stay up all night playing video games? A bad meal before each game? Do we need a team sports psychologist? A serious problem that needs an answer, and I don't have one. Maybe someone inside the program knows how they prepare for an away game versus how other teams prepare, Georgia.
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Because Joe Milton!!!
 
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#10
#10
temptn said:
Do we not have a good pre game routine? The team always seems tired. Do they stay up all night playing video games? A bad meal before each game? Do we need a team sports psychologist? A serious problem that needs an answer, and I don't have one. Maybe someone inside the program knows how they prepare for an away game versus how other teams prepare, Georgia.
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Don’t show up with intensity necessary except at Alabama. They left it in locker room.

This team is mentally soft.
 
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#11
#11
I want to give a special shout out to Vanderbilt tonight.

They kept Tennessee from being the lowest scoring SEC Team tonight!
 
#12
#12
The teams they played on the road this year are better.

Some of y’all need to be a little more realistic and objective when analyzing your favorite teams, it’ll save you a lot of heartache.
 
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#13
#13
temptn said:
Do we not have a good pre game routine? The team always seems tired. Do they stay up all night playing video games? A bad meal before each game? Do we need a team sports psychologist? A serious problem that needs an answer, and I don't have one. Maybe someone inside the program knows how they prepare for an away game versus how other teams prepare, Georgia.
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Momma says cuz they spike our gatorade with Benedril and Xanax.

1699761929134.png
 
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#14
#14
BigOrangeTrain said:
We are just not that good. Simple.
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well you know more than 6 key players are out. maybe more we don't know, #1 receiver Bru, now Thorton goes out, receiver corps is thin.
The notable Vols that are OUT for the Missouri game are listed below.

LB Arion Carter
OG Andrej Karic
LB Keenan Pili
CB Kamal Hadden and LB Kwauze (Pakk) Garland are out with season-ending injuries.
Christian Charles has also been dealing with an injury for quite sometime now and remains out.
 
#15
#15
Every other year is our “tough” year for traveling. This year we went to Florida, Bama, and Mizzou. Kentuckys home field advantage isn’t relevant. In any case, we just played like straight crap today.
 
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#20
#20
temptn said:
Do we not have a good pre game routine? The team always seems tired. Do they stay up all night playing video games? A bad meal before each game? Do we need a team sports psychologist? A serious problem that needs an answer, and I don't have one. Maybe someone inside the program knows how they prepare for an away game versus how other teams prepare, Georgia.
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First, it is tough to play on road, period, let alone in SEC, let alone against Mizzou, which is a very good football team. In addition, people may not like to hear this, but I think it starts with our headman. Heupel is more of an Xs and Os guy rather than a CEO / motivational leader who can really rally the troops and manages the overall team (not just the gameplan) on road games, and in tough SEC road games you need exactly that. We're overall not a very disciplined and smart team. We dont play well when facing true adversities (examples are Bama 2nd half with bad ref, today's end of 2nd quarter momentum swing after Wright's fumble). At Neyland the homefield advantage may help overcome this but when on road the players oftentimes look like deer in the headlight. Championship caliber team's QB doesn't keep trash talking right after you fumbled the ball in 4th quarter when you were very much still in the game, their lineman don't just go to other team's sideline and try to fight their QB (Yes Brady Cook is a punk-ass and I want to rip his fxxxxxx head off). Championship caliber teams just play and take care of business.

I need to check this but I dont recall a single game in the Heupel era we came back to win on road or home when down more than 2 scores. His 1-11(?) record when down at half-time is precisely a proofpoint of that. You can say Heupel ball is score fast and often so we usually don’t fall behind, but when falling behind by a large margin, championship caliber teams flight back and win, and we don’t yet. As I pointed out a few days ago in another thread when fans here were so cocky about us beating the crap out of Mizzou - Heupel's past teams had a nasty track record of losing key road games in November when everything was on the line. He did that in 2019 - taking a 7-2 UCF team with Dillon Gabriel at QB to Tulsa and lost to a 2-7 Tulsa (and then got owned by Tulsa again the next year in Orlando). UCF fans had big issues with him. He also lost to Cincy twice (home and away). Since he took the UT job, the SC game + this year's Bama and UF games, and then this stinker, are all examples his team not prepping well mentally to play in tough situations.

Championship caliber coaches don't do this, they are great people managers and smart strategists, they hire the best and let the coordinators take care of playcalling duties. Unfortunately, I don't think CJH is there yet. He showed improvement but in Year 3, this team still doesn't show championship caliber football smart and discipline.
 
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#22
#22
Orange931 said:
Mays is about all we have on the OL. Our defensive scheme is what’s screwing us. Fire Banks and Martinez and throw the bank at Mason, he would be a homerun defensive hire.
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Agree with this. Our game plan and personnel decisions, accompanied by multiple absolute busts from secondary and LBs in coverage were inexcusable. Everyone knew when Martinez was hired that was a problem. Banks has taken more time to realize but he is a problem too. Guy earned his rep as a DB coach and the only time our DBs look good is when our Dline hide the secondary deficiencies. He hasn’t shown any ability to make adjustments, and we lack discipline.
 
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#25
#25
temptn said:
Do we not have a good pre game routine? The team always seems tired. Do they stay up all night playing video games? A bad meal before each game? Do we need a team sports psychologist? A serious problem that needs an answer, and I don't have one. Maybe someone inside the program knows how they prepare for an away game versus how other teams prepare, Georgia.
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It is simple: Energy Vampires
 
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