Tennessee’s losing streak climbs to four after the Vols give up 24 straight points in the second half to fall 24-13 to Arkansas. We review the Vols loss with The Day After.

HOT

Eric Gray — The sophomore had a career high 34 touches for 150 yards and a touchdown. In the first half, Gray found running room and fell forward. He was by far the best offensive weapon the Vols had Saturday night.

The Tennessee fan base — The Vol nation is not happy and rightfully so as the Vols have lost four straight and look like a 3-7 football team at best at this point. Tennessee continues to make repeated mistakes like not being able to stop the slant. There’s not been an influx of new guys to offer hope and Vol fans are tired of taking a step forward and then two steps back.

NOT

Jeremy Pruitt — After a 2-0 start to the year, Pruitt’s Vols have lost four straight and aren’t showing any real signs of growth. The Vols' offensive numbers are regressing while defensively, Tennessee still has no answer in the secondary as Arkansas threw three touchdown passes and averaged 12 yards a completion. With a difficult schedule to close, Pruitt has a real challenge on his hands to try and turn around what’s been an ugly 5 weeks for the Vols.

The second half — I almost wonder if the Vols shouldn’t go into the locker room at the half because the last four weeks whatever is being said isn’t working. Tennessee opened the second half of the Georgia and Alabama games with fumbles. The Kentucky and Arkansas game it was 3 and out for the offense. Defensively the last four games they have given up a field goal and two touchdowns. They have just not done anything well in the second half. In the last four games the Vols have been outscored 88-7.

The passing offense —The coaching staff has no trust in the quarterback position and it shows. Tennessee averaged just 9.7 yards a reception. The Vols receivers had just 6 catches against the Razorbacks and only had 1 catch in second half. Tennessee isn’t scaring people very much with a passing game that’s regressed as the year has gone on.

Halftime — Tennessee should see if they can get the SEC to cancel it. Half time is a disaster for the Vols who have led at the half in two of their four losses. Maybe it’s a lack of adjustments. Maybe guys are just flat. No one knows but it’s like a switch is flipped off at the half. Arkansas set the tone for the Vol struggles by taking the second half kickoff and going 75 yards on 17 plays for six and to get their offense in rhythm

Vols go for it on 4th and 4 with 4:32 to play— Down 11 and needing two scores to tie or take the lead, Pruitt elected to go for it at the 25 yard line instead of kicking a field goal to make it an 8 point game and give the Vols a chance at a miracle comeback. With a freshman quarterback on the field and after 6 straight runs, it was odd to put the game on Bailey’s shoulders at that point with his first pass of the night.

Jarrett Guarantano’s injury — Pruitt has been saying for weeks that Guarantano gives his team the best chance to win and that appeared to be the case Saturday night. Guarantano was steady in the first half guiding the offense to 13 points. After he went out in the third quarter, the Vols had 6 possessions which were 4 punts and two interceptions. In the first four possessions after JG left the game, the offense had one first down and that was via penalty.

Cimaglia good from 50— After a 1-3 start to the year, everyone wondered what was going on with the senior kicker and did he have it fixed. Cimaglia made a field goal against Alabama and made to field goals in the first half including a 50 yard boot to open the scoring for the Vols and get them going out of the gates.

0 — Number of first downs the Vol offense had in the third quarter. In this four game slide, Tennessee has just 5 first downs in the third quarter.

9 — Number of third down conversions by the Razorback offense who entered the game as one of the worst offenses in the league at moving the sticks. Opponents for the year are converting 48% of their third downs against Pruitt’s defense.

292 — Total offense by the Vols after racking up 120 in the first quarter. The offense has not had 300 total yards in 3 of the last four games and Arkansas’ defense hadn’t held an opponent under 400 yards of offense in their last four games.

100 — Number of points given up by the Vol defense in the second half this season after giving up 24 Saturday night. Conversely, the defense has just given up 61 points in the first half. That stat just further shows the second half issues.

First half it goes to the offensive line who moved people. Tennessee was extremely predictable running the ball on 14 of 17 first down snaps and they averaged 5.1 yards a carry.

The second half was a different story as Tennessee only averaged 2.6 yards a carry on first down.

No one really played well in the second half, but in the first half the offensive line looked like the line most expected this season.

You have the obvious question of what can you do to fix the third quarter problems. Then you have the questions of what are you going to do at quarterback if Jarrett Guarantano can’t go and can you grow offensively. This defense isn’t going to shut good offenses down so how are you going to score points. Thirteen points isn’t good enough. In the last three games the Vols have 37 points which is not enough to win in the SEC.

I understand they are trying to protect the quarterback position and they should lean on the run game but when teams load up to stop the run they have to be able to throw it which means they have to play better at quarterback and at receiver.