Vanderbilt had a surprisingly easy time with Middle Tennessee in Week 1, dominating the game 28-6 and pitching a shutout through three quarters.

Commodores coach Derek Mason has earned his rep as one of the best defensive playcallers in America, so a strong showing on that side of the ball wasn’t surprising. The pass-happy Blue Raiders only totaled 215 yards of offense at home.

However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Vandy also played incredibly well on the offensive side of the football. Specifically, quarterback Kyle Shurmur had maybe the top showing of his three-year stint in Nashville by completing 71.4 percent of his passes for 296 yards with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions — he didn’t have a 3-score game all of last season.

Shurmur has as much starting experience as any QB in the conference, and it’s finally starting to show now as a junior.

“When I look at it, I saw him as a young guy who threw the ball extremely well,” Mason said Wednesday on the SEC’s weekly coaches teleconference. “I thought he managed the game well. When you talk about accuracy, I always judge it on accuracy and his ability to give players an opportunity to make a play on the ball.”

Spreading the ball around liberally to nine different targets, Shurmur clearly took what the Middle Tennessee defense was giving him. Six of his receivers caught multiple passes, and three of them had a gain of at least 23 yards.

Keep in mind that this is the same Shurmur who was only a 54.4-percent passer in 2016 with a negative TD-to-INT ratio of 9-to-10. He didn’t hit on 50 percent of his throws four times in 13 starts — including an awful 19-of-46 performance in a defeat to N.C. State in the Independence Bowl — and was kept under 160 yards on eight occasions.

Keep in mind that this is the same Shurmur who was only a 54.4-percent passer in 2016 with a negative TD-to-INT ratio of 9-to-10.

While the box score doesn’t always back up what you see on tape, Mason actually thought Shurmur was even better than the numbers suggest.

“When I looked at that game and I went back, I think they said he was like 20-of-28 whatever that was, but I thought there were four more catches that were left out there in terms of guys having opportunities to bring the football in,” he said. “I thought Kyle did a great job of moving the ball around, finding his targets and really just manufacturing offense when we needed it.”

To be fair, Middle Tennessee isn’t on par with Alabama defensively. The Blue Raiders may have featured the No. 8 passing offense in the country last year, but they were 95th defending the pass and allowed a whopping 508 yards to Louisiana Tech.

Nevertheless, Shurmur’s outing in the opener is a big development for a Vanderbilt squad that desperately needs him to take the next step. The Commodores were 11th in the league a season ago through the air, ahead of only LSU, Kentucky and Auburn — those three programs had fantastic running games, though. That wasn’t the case for Vandy.

Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Progress is progress, although Mason (above) knows better than to start celebrating now. Shurmur was also improving this past season before the bowl-game disaster.

“We need to be better and we need to be more consistent as we move from Week 1 to Week 2,” he said, “but overall I thought he played a great game.”

"I thought, even for a while there, we got a little complacent and really we should have just kept feeding the ball outside to some degree. But we learned a lot coming out of Game 1 moving into Game 2 and, really, Ralph's going to get going here fast." -- Derek Mason

Back to the ground assault, tailback Ralph Webb was wrapped up rather unexpectedly by Middle Tennessee’s D. The Blue Raiders were just 85th nationally against the run in 2016, yet they limited him to 49 yards on 24 carries with a long of 9.

There’s no reason to worry about him, as he’s already the school’s all-time leading rusher and one of the SEC’s most productive ball carriers. The difference was that Shurmur was finally able to pick up the slack in the passing game — it’s not like opponents haven’t slowed Webb down before — and take some pressure off his teammate’s shoulders.

It didn’t take a genius to evaluate this tape. Middle Tennessee stacked the box with defenders, and Shurmur took advantage accordingly.

“Any time you’re playing against loaded boxes, where you’re getting nine- and eight-man boxes, it would be hard to run,” Mason said. “I thought, even for a while there, we got a little complacent and really we should have just kept feeding the ball outside to some degree. But we learned a lot coming out of Game 1 moving into Game 2 and, really, Ralph’s going to get going here fast.”

Although Webb has caught his fair share of passes in a Vandy uniform, to call him effective as a receiver prior to 2017 would’ve been generous. He had 55 catches for 384 yards from 2014-16, which is a paltry average of 7 yards per reception.

But Saturday in Murfreesboro, Webb had 3 grabs for a team-best 104 yards. The highlight was a simple swing pass to the boundary resulting in a 73-yard touchdown — he exploded down the left sideline and went untouched into the end zone — to essentially put the contest on ice in the opening stages of the third quarter.

Me may have barely averaged 2 yards per carry, but Webb accounted for 153 yards from scrimmage by being a more versatile weapon.

“It was just nice to see him catch the ball, even out of the backfield,” Mason said. “That was something that he had worked hard on this offseason. The opportunities were there, and I believe that he’s a matchup problem when you talk about a young man coming out of the backfield because you’ve got speed, you’ve got hands and you know once he gets the ball, he can do something with it.”

The ‘Dores host Alabama State in Week 2, so they get a chance to feast on a cupcake before their schedule gets decidedly more difficult. While defenses will continue to focus on Webb, they have to start paying more attention to Shurmur in the film room.