Vols Beat Commodores with Defense

Today was a tale of two halves for the offense, but the defense brought it for sixty minutes and secured win number four on the season.

The Vol defense which entered the game ranked 7th in the nation in total defense confused the Vandy quarterbacks all day and blanketed the Commodore receivers.  

Mackenzi Adams passed for 192 yards against the Vol defense, but most of his completions came against zone coverage. When the Vols played man to man on the outside, Adams rarely found an open receiver and was sacked numerous times. The Vols recorded seven sacks on the day. 

The Tennessee secondary had one of its best days all season and recorded two interceptions. Eric Berry continues to amaze. He had another interception today, his seventh of the year, and returned it for a touchdown.  

In my opinion Berry is the second best defensive player I’ve seen in person at Tennessee. I will probably never put anyone ahead of Reggie White, but Berry is close. Other great defenders in my opinion were Terry McDaniel, Dale Jones, and Roland James.  

On offense Tennessee seemed to find something in the defensive scheme for the Commodores that they could take advantage of especially in the second quarter. The Vols running game certainly had a good game today considering how they have been in recent weeks, especially when you consider that Vanderbilt basically ignored Tennessee’s passing game completely.

Of course it would be hard to say that Tennessee has a passing game.  

Tennessee rushed for 222 yards, by far their best output since the UAB game. However, the passing game produced only 21 yards.

I do not lay all the blame on the shoulders of B.J. Coleman for the inefficiency in the passing game because I do not believe that the coaches gave Coleman much of a chance to make a difference.  

The interception that Coleman threw was a horrible pass, but you could see that the Commodores were sitting on the route and they made the play.  The offense was what many have called it all year, boring, unimaginative and predictable.

I’m sure that the coaches would tell us that their lack of confidence in any of the three quarterbacks contributed greatly to the conservative play calling.  

Bottom line, a win is a win. There will be no bowl game following this season, but the players have one more opportunity next week to show that pride matters.