Instant hot takes on an embarrassing 50-17 defeat

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Many observers expected Tennessee to struggle against Missouri tonight. You know what? They were right. The Vols’ downward spiral continues unabated, as they remain winless in the SEC following a 50-17 loss to the Tigers.

1 — Will McBride — It wasn’t enough to get his team over the hump tonight, and he faded late, but my goodness, tip of the cap to young Will McBride. The true freshman made his first-career start on the road tonight, and while he had some struggles, he certainly didn’t lose this game for his team.

He finished the night 16-of-32 for 139 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions, but the numbers don’t do his play justice. Playing behind a patchwork offensive line that allowed consistent pressure, McBride was often on the move out of the pocket and occasionally just running for his life. He was sacked five times and took numerous big shots.

He showed a tremendous amount of poise in a tough spot to put it mildly. He made plays with his feet as well as his arm. None bigger than the two throws he made at the end of the first half.

One, a 20 yard strike to Brandon Johnson that put the Vols on the Missouri four yard line, converted a 4th & 2 with his team down 17-10.

Two plays later, after John Kelly picked up an indefensible unsportsmanlike conduct call to move the ball back to the 19 yard line, McBride bailed him out when he found Ethan Wolf in the end zone to tie the game.

That touchdown was the first passing today for the Vol offense since the UMass game on Sept. 23.

That looked like a huge play at the time but the defense minimized its impact moments later when they allowed a Tiger offense that looked content to run out the clock spring to spring Larry Rountree on a 64 yard run that set Mizzou up for a touchdown in the closing seconds of the half.

Regardless, McBride outplayed any reasonable person’s expectations tonight. Was he great? No. He fell apart a bit in the second half along with the rest of his team.

I’m not suggesting he’s the next Heath Shuler, but he showed some real potential in a tough situation.

2 — Defense — Most everyone with an informed opinion on this Tennessee team expected the defense to struggle tonight and they did. But the unit deserves some criticism because many of those struggles were simply attributable to breakdowns in fundamentals.

And by breakdowns in fundamentals I mean poor angles and missed tackles, the kind of things you learn in middle school.

It appeared that Micah Abernathy took a bad angle on Rountree’s 64-yard scamper to close the first half and again in the third quarter on a 52-yard run by Ish Winter that helped set up another Mizzou touchdown.

In the first half the Vols had the Tigers stopped on 3rd-and-5 near midfield but a missed one-on-one tackle in the flats from Colton Jumper turned a stop into a 19-yard gain and an eventual touchdown.

Most of the concern coming into this game centered on Tennessee’s ability to slow down Missouri’s passing attack, which came into the game averaging 315 yards per game, 14th in the nation.

Ironically, it was the Tigers ground game that Vols couldn’t remotely slow down. Drew Lock hit some big plays, but overall wasn’t extremely sharp on the night, finishing 13-of-28 for 217 yards and four TDs.

The Tigers’ ground game, however, gave the Vols’ fits. Both Rountree (18 carries, 155 yards) and Ish Winter (24 carries, 216 yards) topped the century mark and the Tigers went for 433 yards on the ground in the game.

Perhaps most incredibly of all, Missouri ran 83 total plays on the night and the Vols managed to record just 2 tackles for a loss. One of those came on the Tigers’ last play of the game.

3 — Butch’s fate? — This is the only topic that Tennessee fans are interested in at the moment. Fans want to know what the hold up is on John Currie making the announcement.

Virtually no one, probably even Jones himself at this point, feels like he’ll be the Vols’ head coach next season, so what is the benefit of delaying the announcement?

I’m not really suggesting that announcing his firing now will be some kind of tremendous benefit in the ensuing coaching search. I don’t think that’s the case. I’m sure John Currie has been doing work behind the scenes as it relates to finding Jones’ replacement.

What making the move right now would do is give the fans some closure, which isn’t much maybe, but people who have continued to support this team through a trying stretch deserve that much in my opinion.

The chance at a winning record went out the window tonight in the blowout loss.

What’s left?

Is it worth keeping Jones on the sidelines and the fanbase in limbo so the Vols can keep fighting for a Birmingham Bowl? I don’t think so.

There’s going to be a coaching search, and firing Jones now rather than in two weeks time may be nothing more than semantics, but throw the fans a bone Mr. Currie. They’re dying to turn the page.

One thing that Jones has had going in his favor, in my opinion, is that even as bad as things have gotten this year, it’s still looked like his team was playing hard for him.

That didn’t look to be the case Saturday night here in Missouri.

4 — Rock bottom — Everytime I think the Vols have hit rock bottom this season, something happens to show me that I was wrong.

Previously, I would have pointed at the Kentucky loss as the season’s low point, but not after this one.

Tennessee just got absolutely boat raced tonight by a football program that can’t even close in one of its end zones!

I don’t really mean to insult Missouri here, but with the resources at Tennessee’s disposal and that are committed to the football program, it’s an absolute embarrassment to come to Columbia and lose 50-17.

Should never, ever happen.

Elsewhere, the Vols’ roster is in such disarray because of injuries now that at one point tonight they had seven freshmen on the field at one time.

Barring a miracle next week against LSU, Tennessee will face off against Vandy in the season finale trying to avoid an 0-8 run through the SEC and a last place finish in the league.

Tennessee hasn’t won an SEC football game in almost a full calendar year, not since beating Missouri last Nov. 19.

For a program that has won 830 football games, 13th on the all-time list, this season has been an utter and abject failure of epic proportions.