Why do we play so bad on the road?

[Snapper58]

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.

Another point is that we don't have the depth yet. we had some players get hurt or were out that would have made quite a difference at Florida and Mizzou. It will take a couple of years to get the depth we need. That is the biggest difference in Tennessee vs Georia and Alabama at this point. The quality of the depth.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

It's just harder to win on the road in our conference because you are almost always playing in packed venues full of passionate fans against teams with good athletes.