Relax, everything's going to be just fine for Tennessee
BRISTOL, Tenn. — What a game, and what an atmosphere.
Tennessee went to Bristol and played like most expected the Volunteers to play in 2016.
After an opening week performance that resulted in an unexpected overtime win against Appalachian State, question marks circled around the Vols.
Saturday night, Team 120 supplied some answers, responding in a way that will no doubt move them back toward the top 10 in the majors polls.
They didn’t listen to the clutter that surrounded them this week. Instead, they simply cleaned up their mistakes. They did so in a big way, on a big stage – 156,990 – the largest crowd to ever watch a football game.
It wasn’t a stellar start for Tennessee against Virginia Tech, finding themselves in a 14-0 hole to the Hokies, but the Vols sure finished fast.
After the first, it's all Hokies. pic.twitter.com/otINh997mc
— Dan Harralson (@danharralson) September 11, 2016
“We didn’t start out like we wanted to obviously, down 14-0, but I really liked the way we responded,” Butch Jones said following the game. “We got a big turnover and then we were able to capitalize off that. I thought (if you) take away the one kickoff return, I thought we did a good job in terms of special teams. We were finally able to run the football and play Tennessee style of football.”
Tennessee responded with an offensive performance and a defensive Orange Swarm attack. The slow start could have been adapting to the atmosphere and eventually finding the one-on-one battles to take advantage of.
“I don’t know that you could ever really prepare for something like this until you get here,” Jones said. “Just with everything — the crowd noise, everything going on. We talked about focusing on the task at hand, playing a very good Virginia Tech football team, and football comes down to one on one battles.”
A tale of two quarters pic.twitter.com/UvVcoA1Ke8
— Dan Harralson (@danharralson) September 11, 2016
The Vols showed maturity and composure with their 45-10 run following their two-touchdown early deficit.
“I liked the way we responded being down 14-0, and we’ve talked about hunting the football and taking the ball away on defense and that’s been one of our main priorities,” Jones said. “We were able to do that this year. We talk about playing complementary football and taking the ball away on defense, and that takeaway ended in seven points and not kicking a field goal.
“I thought we were able to do that and seize some momentum that way as well.”
Tennessee caused five turnovers and created 21 points off Virginia Tech’s mistakes.
Josh Dobbs also eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark – a mark that makes the offense hard to beat, especially complimenting his run-game with a three-touchdown performance through the air.
Everything is going to be alright for Tennessee after a sluggish Week 1 start against Appalachian State – as Tennessee plays host to Ohio next week before playing Florida.
Tennessee wins their eighth straight for the first time since '98. pic.twitter.com/JK6SSqnTYH
— Dan Harralson (@danharralson) September 11, 2016
Dan? Are you blind? TN sucks. Dobbs is horrible. The OL doesnt provide coverage toa qb who cant throw. No, everything wont be ok. TN will only win 2 more games this year with that offense. They have one of the greatest QBs in the country and they arent even playing him. Guatamo or whatever bis name is
Toa = Time of arrival? Transfer of assets? qb = Qb, QB? doesnt? cant? wont? QBs? arent? Guatamo?????????? Guatamo, = insert comma???? bis??? is. = period??? No wonder you just have the SEC logo, I would not say I had an Aubarn education either.
Tebow sure wasn’t a passer and when Cam was at Auburn he wasn’t near the passed he has turned into with NFL coaching. Dobbs is better passer than the last Aub. QB that got then to title game the year they lost to FSU.
Dobbs isn’t close to being as good as Tebow or Cam…
Speak Idiot all will listen?DUH?2 games you are my friend a fuking troll
It would have been a very different game without the turnovers. Vols won a good game but they have a much longer way to go than most of us would have thought at this point of the season. Hope Kirkland’s injury is not too serious.
Agree. I don’t think we played as well as the score suggests. Tennessee was fortunate that VT had so many self inflicted wounds. Luckily we were able to turn those into points but we’re going to need to step up the offense against the upcoming big four.
We looked a lot more like the team I watched in Tampa. Butch said it himself Jack Jones coming in provided the necessary spark to our offense. It’s no wonder our offense looked like night and day between tampa and Jones returning in VT. Chance Hall being injured is another key injury for our offensive line. Could we improve? Sure, but I think the road is a lot shorter now than it’s ever been.
Lol @ the dude who has all the answers for this team but don’t know the name of our most coveted QB recruit
I don’t care who you are, 91 passing yards is impressive as hell. I haven’t seen a QB sling the ball around like that since Brandon Harris. Tennessee will have some serious problems with teams that force Dobbs to throw the ball. #OneTrickPony
Box score can be tricky. We had a short field all night.. and the run was clicking, so the pass wasn’t necessary. They did have plays where the made him throw.. and he threw or ran away. Also, deep shot for a touchdown, perfectly thrown fade for a touchdown, and a play where he got away from a sack, and threw another touchdown. The yards I’m not worried about because, like I said, we had a short field all night. He still kept it somewhat accurate, but the TD’s were all on point.
They didn’t want to force him to throw like they did week 1, they let him play his game, and it paid off. Even without the fumbles, VT only score on two more drives after the first quarter.. the rest were punts or fumbles. 66% of their rushing yards came on the first three drives of the game.. then they managed 63 yards for the rest of the game running, and 27 of those came in garbage time at the end of the game.
He made a few nice passes but 10/19 and 91 yards is something to be concerned about. Short field or not, a 4.8 YPA is horrible. He looks like he did last year. Last week, Buthch tried to make him a pocket passer to make people respect his arm. You can’t respect his arm. He was the 9th best passer last year in a down year for QBs. He will have a similar ranking this year. If he’s not running, Tennessee is losing. It took a career game against UGA last year passing and he’ll need another one this year.
Hey Georgia pup fan. You sound scared. Tennessee will finish what Nichols should have. And trailer parks will burn again in Athens on Oct 1.
Tebow was not good passed won couple titles Cam was not that good of a passed until he made it to NFL Plus when you can score running you don’t have to pass as much.
Chuck. Are you actually comparing Dobbs to Cam and Tebow? ROFLMFAO Idiot comment of the week right there. SMH
Tennessee doesn’t have throw for 250 yards a game to reach their goals. Tennessee played Alabama closer than anyone last year (Yes, even OM, because of the turnover differential), and Dobbs had a horrible game passing. Tennessee needs to run the ball successfully and let Dobbs create while on the move and not in the pocket, in order to win. That’s the formula.
Very good observation.. And should TN continue to play on the opponents side of the 50yd line, they mustn’t turn the ball over. They’re gonna need TDs to force the other team to adjust
So it Tenn. Fault that VT would continue giving us good field position. What about the 4 play 90 yd. You talk like the people who pick Top 25. TN plays Vanilla so struggle because they were clearly overlooking a team that had 11-2 rec. Year before drop 8 spots. Then blow out ACC school that everyone was saying Tenn going to get beat they so bad but we blow them out and raise 2 spots and still behind 1 loss Okla. Georgia lost and right behind. US.
Wow….^
If a QB doesn’t get great protection you could still have Peyton back there in his prime and he wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Yes, the OL still appeared to struggle on 3rd down pass protection. But there was a marked improvement in our offense when Jack Jones came into play. I think the absence of Chance Hall and Jack Jones on the OL is really what’s hurt TN offensively. We should continue to see an improvement though if Jack Jones retains the starting position.
This is just week two in the books gentlemen, and if I’m not mistaken even the top teams in the country have weaknesses. What sets the cream from the crop are the coaches and teams that fix and or gameplan around said weekness. Your an idiot if you don’t think the Alabama’s, LSU’s and Clemson’s out there don’t have a problem areas, they just fix them. By the time Tennessee gets to the Florida’s, Georgia’s, and Alabama I have complete faith that Butch Jones will have that offensive line fixed and we do not need Joshua Dobbs to throw the ball but enough to keep teams honest. Also for all the haters, complainers, and keyboard coaches dissing Dobbs 92 yards passing against Va Tech. Well you forget to mention the 3 touchdowns passing in those 92 yards. Vol Nation is awake!