Tennessee was dominant against South Carolina, but they lost because of two moments that still don’t make any sense to Vols fans
The Tennessee Volunteers lost another heartbreaker in Columbia on Saturday evening.
Tennessee took a couple of right hooks early against South Carolina and then the Vols dominated the rest of the game.
And yet South Carolina is the team that left Williams-Brice Stadium with a 27-24 win on Saturday in Columbia.
The Volunteers got down 14-0 in the first quarter, but Tennessee didn’t blink. They punched right back and took a 21-17 lead into the half.
Tennessee’s defense showed up in the second half and shut down South Carolina’s offense.
But unfortunately, the Vols’ offense couldn’t put enough points on the board — thanks mostly to a couple of touchdowns that were wiped off the board by silly penalties (mistakes by the Vols and also ticky-tack calls — the officials on Saturday enjoyed their TV time).
Still, the Vols looked like they were on the verge of putting the game away late in the fourth quarter.
And then Tennessee made a couple of mind-boggling decisions that cost them the game.
The first bad decision came on fourth-and-one with just under four minutes left in the game.
Tennessee went for it from the South Carolina 38-yard line by trying to run what appeared to be an option play, but there was some miscommunication and quarterback George MacIntyre was tackled for a loss and the Vols turned the ball over on downs.
Tennessee’s coaching staff tried to do too much there. They should’ve either punted — South Carolina’s offense had done nothing in the second half to that point — or handed the ball off to tight end Da’Saahn Brame like they did on the goal line earlier in the game (Vols running back DeSean Bishop was banged up at this point in the game).
It’s easy to say that after the fact, but I don’t think anyone would argue against those two options before the play. I don’t understand why they tried to get cute.
The other mistake came on the Vols’ final drive after South Carolina tied the game.
Tennessee had a chance to win the game with a field goal, but MacIntyre fumbled thanks to pressure from South Carolina star EDGE Dylan Stewart.
The Gamecocks got the ball in field goal range and ended up kicking the game-winning field goal.
I have no idea what Tennessee’s coaching staff was doing with the protection on that play. How do you leave right tackle Jesse Perry, who is naturally a guard, alone one-on-one with Stewart in that situation? The one thing that can’t happen there is a strip sack. Protect the quarterback and at worst you go to overtime. How does Perry not get help?
Tennessee was the better team on Saturday, but they made too many mistakes to win the game.
But none were bigger than the two mistakes by Tennessee’s coaching staff at the end of the game.
And look, I’m not calling for any coaching changes or anything like that. This staff has done a really good job, and this kind of stuff is happening across the sport to good programs on a weekly basis. But those are mistakes that can’t happen if you want to be a College Football Playoff team.
Now the Vols have put themselves in a spot where they likely have to win out to make the playoff, which means there can’t be any mistakes the rest of the year like what we saw late in the game on Saturday against South Carolina.
