Josh Heupel addresses defensive lapses on 3rd down against Missouri
Josh Heupel and Tennessee had several frustrating moments against Missouri on 3rd down situations.
The biggest came when the Vols had Missouri backed up to its own end zone on a 3rd and long situation, and quarterback Brady Cook managed to use his legs to pick up the first down and extend the drive.
Stopping the offense on 3rd down is a big point of emphasis for Tennessee this week as it prepares for Georgia. Heupel addressed what went wrong on 3rd downs during his press conference Monday.
“Inability to get off the field, part of that was the quarterback extending and making plays with his feet running and also scrambling and getting outside of the pocket,” Heupel said. “For us, you gotta do a good job applying pressure to him, you can’t let him sit back there all day. But he broke contain on us, that was disappointing. Some of our twist games, our contained player didn’t get there. He got up through the middle of the field once or twice too. We gotta do a better job, that’ll be big in this one too, and we gotta match things out on scramble drill.”
Tennessee will face Georgia this week and is looking for better production on 3rd downs. The Bulldogs bring both a ground and air threat to the game, and it will be crucial for Tennessee to get stops on 3rd down.