Photos: Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee holds on for a nail biting 24-17 win at Arkansas. Welcome to this week’s hangover.
It was pure slop against a hapless SEC team. A comedy of errors. Pre snap penalties killing drives before they started. Bad turnovers. A defense that has carried this team all season looking lost in the third quarter against an Arkansas offense that has been terrible against every team with a pulse. This was an ugly performance. If it shows up again at any point on the remaining schedule, that is a loss. The Vols picked a great time for their worst football yet. Arkansas is in shambles and could not take advantage of the opportunities they were handed.
You can sit in one of two camps after that game. The first is that the performance is not good enough. The second is that we played our worst football, won an SEC game, and all is fine. I am in the first camp.
People will tell you never to complain about a win on the road in the SEC. That is a lazy take. Arkansas is a bad football team no matter the conference. Their fans are checked out. That was not a hostile environment that moves the scoreboard. They have shown all year they cannot compete. Tennessee is superior at every position outside of possibly quarterback, and that is debatable. Once again we went into a Saturday hoping for any kind of meaningful improvement and once again we left with more questions than answers. The offensive line still cannot block. The quarterback is still struggling. Now the defense has cracks. At some point you have to use your eyes and say this is not enough, even after a win. There is no excuse for this quarterback situation. There is no excuse for an offensive line that cannot block the worst run defense in the SEC. There is no excuse for a nail biter against a team that would be thrilled to win four games. It is year six. This is not trending the right way. Unless you have the most orange tinted glasses in existence, you can see this will not get it done and it is not improving. We are not beating the real teams anymore because we are not good enough to do it unless they hand us a game the way we almost handed one to the Razorbacks. This team is not very good. All is fine at the moment. It will not take long for that to get exposed.
Camp two will say pump the brakes. We just won at a place that gives us nightmares. We are 5-1 with everything in front of us. This was always a rebuilding year. We are right where we expected to be. To that I say, do you really think Fayetteville in its current state was a real obstacle this season? Is this the 5-1 you pictured with an offense this inept at scoring and a loss to a Texas team that was the most artificial number one in years? Why are we in a rebuilding year in year six, with the resources Tennessee has and a transfer portal with no rules? I did not expect to be this negative after a win. There was a point in the fourth quarter where I thought, win or lose, this is not getting it done. I am running out of ways to stay in camp two.
This schedule is miles better than it looked in the preseason. It is all there for the taking. It was last year too. We have avoided the teams that look like the best in the SEC, with the exception of Alabama, who we get at Neyland. This offense is going to waste this defense. Forget the win for a minute. This is not close to where we should be. We all want the same thing. Tennessee competing at the highest level of the SEC and the sport. Be honest with yourself. What has happened since the Ohio State pummeling two years ago that makes you believe we are ascending anywhere near that level? I cannot find it.
It is not going to take playing better to win the Third Saturday in October. It is going to take a Vols team we have not seen to this point showing up out of nowhere. I would give anything to come back to this in a month, apologize, and talk about how wrong I was and how I jumped the gun too early after a 5-1 start. But I have watched more football than I care to admit, and I know what good football and bad football look like. Chances are if you have found this small website and are reading this, you have watched a lot of it too. We know this is not good football, and the excuses as to why are running thin.