The Vols are looking to go to 2-0 in the SEC and with their 8th straight game as they host Missouri in their home opener. What’s key for the Vols? Here are four, in our weekly Cheat Sheet.

Get out of the blocks — It’s a noon start. There’s essentially no crowd, no VolWalk nothing is normal for a home game. But there’s no excuses for not to be ready to play. Tennessee is the favored team and they need to start the game like that. A week ago it was a rough start. Carolina drove the length of the field to score. Vol offense stalled. They botched a punt and were fortunate not to be down two scores. Missouri struggled a week ago but they played hard. Tennessee needs to be ready to go and get off to a better start.

2. Nothing cheap — It feels like Missouri’s offense might have a hard time driving the length of the field on a regular basis. The Tigers didn’t take many vertical shots offensively a week ago. Head coach Eli Drinkwitz said they probably should have. I expect the Tigers to be more aggressive offensive and Tennessee can’t give up anything cheap defensively. The Vol offense did a good job taking care of he ball last week and that must continue. That’s always a given but when you are the favorite you don’t want to give an underdog easy points.

3. Run the football —Tennessee’s first half rushing stats were not pretty as the had just 10 yards on 11 rushes. The number of rushes are a bit misleading as offensive coordinator Jim Chaney only called 8 tailback runs. Two of those official rushing plays were sacks on called passes. Another was a one yard qb sneak for a touchdown. Chaney opened the second half with 6 called runs in the first 8 plays and had success. Tennessee’s offensive front should be the strength of this offense and the Vols need to it more especially early.

4. Move the sticks —It’s pretty amazing that the Vols converted just one third down and failed on their last 9 third down conversions and still won the game. Jarrett Guarantano’s accuracy was at it’s worst on third down and the overall offense simply was poor in their execution. One area of growth the offense must make is on third downs this week. Converting only one a game is a recipe for disaster at some point.