Upon Further Review: Vols offensive ineptitude reaches rock bottom
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For a brief moment Saturday, Tennessee’s streak appeared over.
Midway through the fourth quarter, John Kelly snuck into the end zone on a 3-yard plunge, and a drought that had lasted nearly 28 days had ended.
Only it hadn’t, apparently, as officials ultimately ruled Kelly down inches short of the goal line. By the end of a hopeless 45-7 loss to No. 1 Alabama, Tennessee’s offensive futility had reached historic lows.
After 14 quarters, more than 210 minutes of game time and 43 drives later, Tennessee will take its touchdown drought to Kentucky next weekend. Even if Kelly had found the end zone, Tennessee’s offensive stats still have reached Shaquille O’Neal-free throw shooting levels of ineptitude.
* Tennessee’s 108 yards Saturday were its fewest in at least 28 years.
* During their touchdown drought, the Vols have gained 561 total yards in 14 quarters. Alabama had 604 yards on Saturday.
* Tennessee has been held under 150 yards twice already this season. That didn’t even happen during the lows of the 2008 season.
* Tennessee ranks last nationally in total offense among all Power 5 teams (289.7 yards per game).
* The Vols were 1 of 12 on third down against the Tide and are now the worst in the SEC in third down conversions.
* Tennessee hasn’t scored a red zone touchdown in four conference games this season.
* How badly does this team miss Josh Dobbs, Alvin Kamara and Josh Malone? The Vols finished in the Top 20 in the country last year on explosive plays (79 total of 20 yards or more). They have just 19 such snaps all season — good for No. 126 nationally.
“When you think about that and put it into perspective, it’s kind of crazy. … We know we’re better than this,” sophomore wideout Marquez Callaway said.
“We just haven’t played to our abilities.”
Tennessee’s offensive issues are obvious, but the answers moving forward are much less clear. Playcalling remains vanilla and unimaginative with zero Plan B, C or Ds when a defense does something Tennessee doesn’t expect.
Back-to-back jet sweeps for minimal gains is the epitome of just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing if it sticks.
Could Tennessee consider making a change at playcaller? Well, where do you turn? Jones hasn’t called plays since a short stint as Central Michigan’s OC in 2001-03 and Mike Canales’ offense ranked No. 119 and No. 113 in yards per play in his last two years at North Texas.
Furthermore, playcalling is simply one carrot in a salad-bowl of problems.
Tennessee’s offensive line isn’t very talented and now is running out of bodies. The staff only trusts four wideouts, and that group struggles to routinely win against man-coverage or properly execute a play.
Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano is tough as nails, but the game remains way too fast for the redshirt freshman. He holds the ball too long and has gotten caught guessing on protections at times, thwarting plays at the snap.
On Saturday, Guarantano threw for just 44 yards — 37 yards coming on 5 of 5 passes on first downs. He was just 4 of 11 on all other throws for just seven yards.
He was also hit (either via sack, rush or hurry) on 19 of 27 plays he was involved in. That’s a ton.
Again, the kid doesn't flinch and gets up every time, but he took some punishing blows yesterday, including a brutal, almost-decapitation on a dangerous, ill-fated attempt at a Hail Mary to end the first half.
Add it all up and it’s not hard to see why this offensive is so anemic.
Butch Jones said Tennessee’s plays work in practice, but execution — the team's favorite buzzword in 2017 — is not translating to gamedays. The flea-flicker is a great example of that, but what about misusing your personnel, too?
Why not lean on your best player in the biggest games?
John Kelly had 23 touches against Indiana State. He racked up 27 in the win over UMass.
In the last two weeks vs. SEC foes, he’s combined for 32 touches. Kelly had just three carries before his 18-yard draw with 1:18 left in the second quarter. He finished the afternoon averaging 5.3 per rush, but he had just 12 carries on the day.
THE STARTING 11
A skinny dozen of quick-hitters and final thoughts…
1. I’m going to zip through these, because there’s only so much masochism folks can take with a team that's 3-4 and possibly in the market for new coaches. But despite a 38-point loss, Tennessee did walk away with a *few* positives Saturday. Where, say you? Well…
2. Howdy doody, Shawn Shamburger. I’ve been tooting the freshman’s horn since training camp, and it was great to see the Alabama native play well in his first-career start back in his home state. Shamburger finished the game with a team-high 12 tackles, adding a sack and TFL. He was targeted a bunch squared up opposite Calvin Ridley, and while he was flagged a couple times, he displayed the physicality and aggressive press-coverage he flashed during the preseason.
3. Elsewhere, Quart’e Sapp had another solid game (11 tackles), Daniel Bitlui delivered a couple ferocious hits in the hole and added a pick-six and Nigel Warrior recorded 7 tackles, a sack and a pass breakup.
4. With leads me to this: Why haven’t these guys played more all year? Shamburger couldn’t get on the field at Florida? It took six games for Sapp and Bitlui to become the mainstays at linebacker? These young players will — and have already — make tons of mistakes (see: Bitluli in pass coverage, Sapp with a his run-gaps sometimes), but their upside outweighs the downside of having them simply ride the bench and then only play when the defense merely runs out of bodies at position X.
The same thing happened to Warrior a year ago. And that’s why the Vols continue to struggle with depth. They’re not optimally developing their younger players right now.
5. Tennessee’s latest offensive line combination didn’t work. Coleman Thomas turned a pass-rusher right into Guarantano’s lap a couple times, freshman LaBryan Ray just tossed Jashon Robertson aside one play and Rashaan Evans put a nasty spin move on Brett Kendrick.
6. And yet, the group still showed fight. Trey Smith tweaked an ankle but only missed two plays and grinded out the rest of the game. Guarantano and Ryan Johnson had a miscommunication on a corner blitz, but the redshirt freshman guard certainly didn’t play scared in the first meaningful snaps of his career.
7. Rashaan Gaulden’s double-barreled salute was silly, but Gaulden’s impromptu postgame apology was impressive, especially since it was unexpected. As for a weekly reminder: Gaulden remains Tennessee’s best defensive player.
8. Conversely, Jonathan Kongbo’s junior season has been a big disappointment to date. He had as many killer 15-yard penalties Saturday (2) as sacks + hurries all season (2). Sophomore left tackle Jonah Williams completely stoned Kongbo a couple times in pass pro as well.
9. Nice hustle play by D.J. Henderson to force the fumble on Alabama’s punt return, and Bituli's catch-and-run interception return was Tennessee's best play in a month. Amazingly, the Vols actually won the turnover battle Saturday.
10. Raise your hand if you were a bit confused by Jones’ decision to punt at Alabama’s 45-yard line late in the first quarter? Tennessee entered Saturday’s game 37-point underdogs with a 1.5 percent win expectancy, so what was there to lose from going for it?
Jones’ decision to play field position was briefly rewarded when Trevor Daniel downed the punt at the 2-yard line. But outcome doesn’t mean the process wasn’t flawed. Tennessee missed a chance at some momentum, and after the two teams traded punts: Alabama ended up with the football at the 50-yard-line anyways.
11. Barring a sudden change, Butch Jones will coach Tennessee at Kentucky on Saturday. Since 1985, the Vols have won 31 of 32 against the Wildcats, but are 5.5-point underdogs this weekend.
Rock bottom?
Tennessee will undoubtable circle the wagons this weekend, but the arrows are flying fast, and Jones could be facing a win-or-go-home scenario.