Key takeaways: Heupel assesses offense following Florida loss

Familiar mistakes plagued Tennessee in its SEC opener at Florida last Saturday night and it cost the Vols.

Pre-snap penalties and defensive breakdowns in the first half resulted in a 29-16 loss to the Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and left No. 24 Tennessee (2-1, 0-1 SEC) with far more questions than answers heading into week 4.

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Ahead of a non-conference bout with UTSA (1-2), Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel met with the media on Monday. He addressed the Vols' offensive woes, assessed their most recent overall performance and more.

Here are the takeaways.

The Tennessee defense looked like it had taken a step forward with stifling performances against Virginia and Austin Peay, but early mistakes were costly vs. Florida.

The Vols held their first two opponents to less than 100 yards and entered Saturday as one of the best run stoppers and pass rushers through two weeks of college football. They were unable to slow down the Gators' backfield, which accounted for nearly 200 yards, including 172 yards from running back Trevor Eitenne.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Josh Heupel meets with the media on Monday

Quarterback Graham Mertz had enough time to connect on critical passes to extend drives on third down, allowing Florida to build a 26-7 first half lead. The Gators converted 50% of their third down attempts.

"We had (Florida) in some third-and-long situations, too," Heupel said. "(Mertz) was able to get outside of the pocket where we don't keep contain on it. We don't match things on the back end, give up two routes on the sideline when we're sitting in a hard corner. We should be all over that.

"So a little bit of the run fits, guys are not completely out of the gap, but their eyes are caught in the wrong spot for a split second. They're a step, a step and a half behind. And you give up a vertical seam."

Joe Milton III put together arguably Tennessee's best offensive drive of the season to that point on the Vols' opening possession.

In two minutes, Milton connected with Squirrel White down the sideline on a 42-yard gain and hit Ramel Keyton for an 11-yard touchdown on the next play to give Tennessee a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: VolReport recaps Josh Heupel presser

The Vols couldn't replicate that success the rest of the way, mostly because of their offensive line struggles, which rarely allowed Milton to get passes off or put drives 10 or more yards back with pre-snap penalties.

Despite that, Milton was adequate, finishing 20-of-34 passing for 287 yards and two touchdowns, including a 55-yard score to Bru McCoy late. His lone interception was more of a result of being hit as he released the ball instead of bad decision making.

"(Milton) did some really good things the other night," Heupel said. "The pick, we can't just throw it up. He'd like to have that one back and we got to get better in protection, too in that situation. The decision making, where he's going with the football, I said it before the game, I'll say after the game too, he was in the right spots. Accuracy, wide receivers being exact in their routes, all those things got to continue to improve for us to be as efficient as we need to be."

Tennessee's performance against Florida shared similarities with its loss at Georgia last season.

A sold out, hostile crowd may have played a factor in pre-snap communication, which led to a number of penalties that stalled out Vols' drives before they really began and it took them out of their tempo.

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"We've done a lot of things (to prepare for road noise)," Heupel said. "You need to ramp it up, I guess and when I say I guess we can only intensify it. We got to be able to function better than we did. Part of that is the noise, part of it is being able to reset for one play to the next. That's the hardest part to replicate during practice."

Tennessee gets a three-game home stretch before its next road match up at Alabama on Oct. 23. The Vols play at Kentucky and Missouri later this season.

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