The Day After

It was a must win for the Vols if they were going to keeps hopes of the SEC's Eastern Division alive. It wasn't pretty in some ways but it was a win. We look back at the Vols victory over Kentucky with The Day After.

HOT

Josh Dobbs – After going 12-13 for 183 yards and 3 touchdowns against Tennessee Tech, Dobbs kept his hot play going. The senior went 11 of 17 for 223 yards and 3 touchdowns. Dobbs also led the Vols with 147 yards rushing and 2 scores. Dobbs will miss playing the Wildcats. In four games against Kentucky, Dobbs is 60-93 for 952 yds. 10 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions. On the ground, he has 298 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Redzone defense – Kentucky drove the ball up and down the field on the Vols, but in the redzone, Tennessee's defense was strong. In six trips, Kentucky had just 2 touchdowns. They forced three field goals and a fumble in four of those six trips.

Offensive explosive plays – Tennessee had 10 offensive snaps of 20 yards or more on Saturday against the Wildcats. For the season, the Vol offense has 52 offensive plays of 20 yards or more as this offense has clearly been more explosive than in Butch Jones' first three years in Knoxville.

NOT

Discipline – After not having a turnover a week ago, the Vols turned it over twice against the Wildcats. The Vols are still struggling with penalty discipline. It's simply who they are. Tennessee had 9 more penalties for 64 yards. The Vols had 6 penalties for 71 yards and for the season Tennessee has 590 penalty yards. That's the most penalty yards by the Vols in the Butch Jones era.

Rush Defense – Stopping running attacks have been difficult all year long. And Saturday it was as bad as it's been as Kentucky rushed for 443 yards, the third highest total in school history. For the year, Tennessee has giving up 2,168 yards. Again on Saturday, it was the gash plays. The Vols gave up a 75 yard run and a 71 yard run. The defense has now given up 433 yards on 6 rushes this season.

Kickoff return – Everyone knew that the Vols would miss Evan Berry, who's lost for the year. And Kentucky has been good in kickoff coverage this season. Saturday, the Vols got basically nothing out of the kickoff return game. Tennessee's longest return was 22 yards on the bloop kick. But the Vols failed to recover an on-side kick. Of Kentucky's 7 kickoffs, the Vols only got to the 25 yard line three times.

The coin flip – For the first time since September, more than two captains went to midfield in uniform for the coin flip. The return of Alvin Kamara and Cam Sutton meant more that just stats. It showed the culture in the program as both players could have focused on their NFL futures and not returned to the field this season.

Dobbs for 35 yards to the one yard line – Down 10-7, Tennessee answered with points, something they did all afternoon. Dobbs' 35 yard run set the Vols up at the one where they would punch it in for a 14-10 lead. The run was one of many on a huge day on the ground for Dobbs.

Griffin forces fumble– Tennessee did a good job forcing field goals instead of touchdowns, in the redzone and they also got a huge stop as the sophomore safety filling in for the injured Todd Kelly, Jr. forced a fumble that LaTroy Lewis recovered. With the score 28-16, Kentucky looked like they were going to close it to one possession game, but the turnover prevented that and Tennessee turned it into seven points and took command of the game.

Stephen Johnson goes 75 yards on Kentucky's first play – Let's be honest, it wasn't all pretty for the Vols in the win. Tennessee's struggles in defending the run started early as Kentucky's quarterback went 75 yards to set up a 2 play, 2 run scoring drive on the Wildcats first possession.

648 – Number of receiving yards by Josh Malone on 35 catches this season. It's the most receiving yards by a receiver in the Butch Jones era. Malone is averaging 18.5 yards a catch and he has 8 touchdowns this season.

79-24 – That's the number of tackles for loss and sacks by the Vol defense this season as they had 4 more sacks on Saturday. A season ago the Vols had 30 sacks. In the last three games the Vols have recorded 14 of their 20 sacks.

2,168 – Number of rushing yards given up by the Vol defense this year. Kentucky's 443 yards was the third highest totals surrendered by a Vol defense in school history.

40 & 19 – Tennessee has had 40 different players start a game this season, 19 of them have missed at least one game due to injury, suspension or dismissal. With the ankle injury to Todd Kelly, Jr., that number could grow next week.

Josh Malone had a big day. Alvin Kamara let everyone know he was back. Getting Cam Sutton back was a big emotional lift for this team. But you have to go with Josh Dobbs. Dobbs was sensational on Saturday. Dobbs had 370 yards of total offense. He accounted for 5 touchdowns. Dobbs completed 65% of his throws and he rushed for 147 yards on 14 carries. With Tennessee's defense struggling to stop the run and stop offenses, the Vol offense might have to outscore Missouri next week and will need Dobbs to play the way he has played in his last six quarters of action.

Since arguably the worst outing of his career at South Carolina, Dobbs has bounced back in a big time way.

The biggest question moving forward is how does Bob Shoop stop the run. Missouri is going to come to Knoxville a better passing team than Kentucky but they can run it. So how does Shoop with his undersized defensive front stop the run?

Tennessee has struggled with the run all season and Saturday it wasn't between the tackles that gave the Vols troubles it was their continued inability to set the edge up front and close in the back end on the wide running plays. Tennessee has given up 2168 yards on the ground and continue to give up huge gash plays. Can the defense prevent offense's from the 60 plus yards running plays? Tennessee has given up 7 of those this season, including two on Saturday to the Wildcats.