By Jay King
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Casey Clausen, Travis Stephens, and John Henderson. These are a few of the names that donned the Power T the last time the No. 15 Volunteers beat Arkansas in Fayetteville. That losing streak, dating back to 2001, has officially come to an end.
Tennessee escapes Arkansas 24-17.
“It’s been a long time since this program has won [in Fayetteville],” said head coach Josh Heupel. “[We] talked about it during the week.”
This should be a time to celebrate for the Volunteers, right?
Wrong.
This Arkansas team is in one of its worst eras in program history and is the consensus worst team in the SEC.
There was so little confidence among the Arkansas fanbase that the attendance was 69,038 out of 76,000, which is terrible for a conference game. There was no buzz before the game, and a good amount of orange.
So even with a win, Tennessee has no excuse for how they played.
“There’s a lot of things that we gotta do better in the beginning and middle parts,” said Heupel. “We gotta take it; we gotta own it.”
This is one of many times the Volunteers have played down to their competition on the road in the Heupel era.
The Defense
Overall, the defense played well, and it was largely why Tennessee won this game.
Xavier Gilliam set the tone early: on the first drive, he got a strip-sack and recovered his own fumble.
“Anytime I can… make a big play for my team.. Ima take it,” Gilliam responded. “I see it’s an opportunity to change the game for my team.”
His speed and athleticism are impressive for a defensive tackle like him.
The front seven as a whole was on point today, as they disrupted Arkansas Quarterback KJ Jackson with six tackles for loss and four QB hits as a unit, along with Gilliam’s forced fumble.
The main issues defensively were on the Razorbacks’ first two drives in the second half, where they looked non-existent.
Arkansas’ offense diced up Tennessee’s defense effortlessly, especially on the run.
The Razorbacks scored on only five rushing plays back from the first half. They went 70 yards in only five plays for the touchdown. The second drive had more plays, but there were still no incompletions, and every play was a positive gain.
The defense was able to regroup afterward, only giving up a field goal for the rest of the game. Heupel had a message for the defense after giving up those touchdowns.
“As they’re coming off [the field]… there’s a lot of clock,” said Heupel. “Whether you’re up or down, it’s 0-0 for 60 minutes, and play each play independently.”
Despite the front seven dominating this game, the secondary came up clutch on the Razorbacks’ final drive. They forced three incompletions to get Arkansas to punt, a controversial decision by Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield.
“If you can punt, and play defense, and stop the run on three downs… we’d get the ball back,” Silverfield explained. “We didn’t execute, and we didn’t stop the run.”
The Offense
The offense was the main problem today for Tennessee.
Luckily, whenever the pass game is not on point, the Vols can rely on DeSean Bishop, and that is exactly what they did with the game on the line.
On the final drive, Bishop accounted for 77 of the 81 yards, including the game-winning touchdown.
“[I] was just waiting for the opportunity to make a big play, [and] it came when we needed it most,” said Bishop. “It goes to show that this game is a four-quarter game.”
Now the rest of the offense was concerning.
In quarterback George MacIntyre’s first road start for the Volunteers, it was nothing to be desired.
He finished with 247 passing yards and a touchdown, which sounds fine, but his three turnovers, two interceptions and a lost fumble, were bad.
The fumble was a big momentum loss for the Vols, as they were driving down the field on a two-minute drill, and the Razorbacks picked it up and were about to score. Luckily, Radarious Jackson was there to make a hustle play to prevent the touchdown.
Even luckier, notorious former Tennessee kicker Max Gilbert missed the field goal to end the half. If luck did not go Tennessee’s way, it would have been much worse
The offense made so many mistakes, whether it was multiple drops, bad turnovers, or six offensive penalties for 54 yards.
Long story short, it’s concerning that a team that gave up 40.67 points per game against Power Four opponents heading into today scored only 24.
UP NEXT: Taking a look at the calendar, you can see that the third Saturday of October is right around the corner. Tennessee will host a top-10 Alabama team that looks like a championship contender.
The Volunteers are looking to make it three straight home wins over their archrivals, but for now, that is wishful thinking.
That is now all three conference games in which they’ve scored fewer than 30 points, which is concerning for a supposed high-flying offense.
Something needs to change in the next seven days, or Tennessee might get a rude awakening next week.