Tennessee, despite playing one of the worst first halves of the Josh Heupel era, is now 2-0 on the season following a 30-13 win over Austin Peay.

It was an ugly one. Tennessee needs to take a lesson from Taylor Swift in a desperate way ahead of next week against the Florida Gators: Just shake it off.

Here are 3 takeaways from the Vols’ Week 2 win:

Drops, Milton struggles stamp ugly first half

Joe Milton did not play well in the first half of Tennessee’s home opener. He played… okay (?) in the 2nd half.

Neither did any of Tennessee’s wide receivers, really. The Vols’ receiving corps – all of them – were plagued by drops and fumbles in a really uncharacteristic performance, especially in the first 30 minutes. It’s hard to say for sure, but Tennessee was probably hovering around 8-10 drops Saturday evening. And that’s being nice.

A lot of Tennessee fans won’t want to hear this, but Tennessee’s dreadful offensive first half was more about these drops than it was about Milton’s woes at the QB position.

But to be fair, there was plenty of blame to go around. Those types of performances are almost never solely on one person or group. Milton missed his share of receivers and threw a few balls late without really pushing the ball downfield, but his receivers were doing him zero favors in the first 30 minutes. Take those 2 cents as you will.

Milton finished the day 21-33 with 228 yards, 2 touchdowns and zero interceptions. More than anything, Milton’s biggest issue was failing to push the ball downfield against a… not good Austin Peay secondary. Drops or not, that can’t happen moving forward.

Tennessee did a lot of it to itself, too. They held the ball most of the first half and just failed to do anything with it, finishing 2-7 on 3rd down and 0-1 on 4th downs in the first half. The Vols finished 2-12 on 3rd down on the day.

Expect some tough practices this week, Vols.

Aaron Beasley, Kamal Hadden lead a good defensive performance

Aaron Beasley was by far the best player on the field Saturday evening, trailed by defensive back Kamal Hadden.

The Vols’ defense was working without standout middle linebacker Keenan Pili Saturday, who is expected to miss some time with an undisclosed injury. Elijah Herring got the start in place of Pili and by all accounts, he played an alright game. Despite the final score, the Vols’ defensive front played fairly well Saturday.

And Beasley was a star.

The senior linebacker recorded 9 tackles, 5 tackles for loss and a pair of sacks in a potential SEC Player of the Week performance against the Govs. Tennessee as a whole finished with 13 tackles for loss and 7 sacks, really affecting Govs QB Mike DiLiello to keep AP at bay.

Here’s what’s really good for Tennessee fans to see: Kamal Hadden played one of his better games in a Tennessee uniform in Week 2. The senior defensive back notched an interception, nearly had another and showed that when he turns around to look for the ball, he’s a pretty solid piece of the Vols’ secondary.

He could stand to clean up a few penalties, though.

It’ll be al-Wright, Tennessee

Every team is guaranteed a dud at some point, and while it is slightly alarming that this performance came in Week 2 against Austin Peay, there’s a lot of football to be played. And ultimately, a win is a win.

Tennessee continued to run the ball well throughout the game. In fact, most of the reason Tennessee was able to create a bit of a cushion to put to bed any rumblings of an upset was thanks to the run game, especially Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright.

Jaylen Wright totaled 118 rushing yards and 9.1 yards per carry. He’s likely to have a major role when the Vols travel to the Swamp next week for their SEC opener. Small added 86 yards of his own as the Vols rushed for 219 yards and 1 touchdown.