The Tennessee Volunteers fell 29-21 to the No. 17 Missouri Tigers on Saturday at Neyland Stadium. The Tigers outgained the Vols 410-279 in total yards and held a 32:30-27:30 edge in time of possession. Head coach Butch Jones reflected on his team’s performance during his postgame press conference, praising the effort shown after facing a deficit.

“I’m very proud of our kids,” Jones said. “They didn’t quit; kept hanging in there, kept scratching, kept clawing, but as we all know winning is very fragile. There were too many mistakes in three series in a row…Again, we will continue to regroup, learn from it, cant turn the football over and everything is magnified against a quality opponent.

“Missouri is a very good football team and they didn’t turn the football over and we had two turnovers. We had penalties that extended drives, which you couldn’t do. I thought we were behind the field position battle, particularly in the first half. But, I’m proud of the way our kids scratched and crawled.”

Tennessee trailed 29-13 with 6:22 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Vols drove 79 yards on 14 plays to narrow the deficit to 29-21. After offsetting penalties negated a successful try, the Vols were called offsides after recovering an onside kick. Tennessee burned its second timeout challenging the call, leading Missouri to run out the clock on the ensuing possession.

“I saw some resiliency,” Jones said. “The ruling was we touched it before ten yards. I’m anxious to go back to the office and see how close we were in the offsides because obviously that’s a pivotal call in a pivotal moment. I mean it is what it is. Our kids kept scratching and clawing and showing their resiliency.”

Joshua Dobbs recorded 195 yards, one touchdown and one interception on 24-of-37 passing. But the dual-threat quarterback was held to 13 yards on 17 carries, averaging 0.8 yards per attempt.

“He has been pretty good at that all year,” Jones said of Doobs. “I will know a little bit more when I watch the video. It is hard to see from the vantage point where we are (during the game). For the most part he has done a good job. There were a couple times he got the ball down on his third progression to Jalen Hurd on some of the swing routes. I will know a little bit more when I watch the video tonight.”