Columbia, Mo. – Tennessee football’s 2023 season reached a new low on Saturday, as the Vols were blown out by SEC East foe Missouri, 36-7.
Outside of a 46-yard Dont’e Thornton touchdown, nothing went right for Tennessee in the loss. And it all began with a first quarter in which the Vols’ offense ran just three plays.
Missouri, meanwhile, ran 24.
The Tigers moved the ball well on their first drive until Brady Cook threw an interception to Jaylen McCollough. The Vols would then face a 4th & 4 three plays later and punt it away.
The ensuing drive for Missouri bled into the second quarter, taking 10 minutes and 55 seconds off the clock. During the drive, the Tigers picked up five of six first downs and went 72 yards in 20 plays. Tennessee ultimately held Missouri to just three points, but the Tigers’ first offensive drive foreshadowed how the rest of the night would go for the Vols.
Offensively, Missouri’s drive put Tennessee at an early disadvantage. Tennessee was unable to get into any sort of rhythm in the opening quarter, a quarter teams use to get acclimated to a specific game against a specific defense.
“You didn’t get the ball that much as an offense,” Milton said when looking back to the first quarter. “And with our offense, because we’re a fast-paced offense, we want to be able to get the ball and keep going… but they held the ball and ran the ball a lot more, and actually got yards off of it. So, we had to sit there and wait our turn.”
“I think they moved around a little bit, got us out of our gaps, and we weren’t fundamentally sound,” Tennessee cornerback Gabe Jeudy-Lally said on why they couldn’t get off the field during the drive. “And when you are not fundamentally sound, the result is going to show that.”
While Tennessee scored after Missouri’s long drive on an improbable 46-yard Dont’e Thornton touchdown, Tennessee was never able to string positive plays together.
There’s no question Tennessee’s offense played poorly as a whole, but Tennessee’s inability to get off the field defensively exacerbated the problem.
As Milton noted postgame, Tennessee’s offense is one that relies on tempo but one that wants to run the ball and dictate. With the Vols trailing the majority of the second half, they were limited in what they were able to do, and Missouri shut them down.
More From RTI: What Tennessee Players Said After Loss to Missouri
An alarming trend for Tennessee in the game was Missouri’s ability to convert third downs. The Tigers moved the chains on 11 of 17 third down attempts, with the majority of them coming via Brady Cook or Cody Schrader’s legs and passes before the line to gain.
Cook finished with four carries for 49 yards and a touchdown on his four third-down conversions, while Schrader logged 12 yards rushing and a score on three carries along with a 23-yard reception on the four third-down conversions in which he was responsible.
Cook and Schrader shredded Tennessee in the middle of the field all night, an uncharacteristic occurrence for the Volunteers’ rush defense.
“We knew the quarterback was a good athlete, and you have to commend him,” Jeudy-Lally said about why Tennessee had trouble getting off the field on third down. “He made some plays on third down when we had it covered up pretty well. So at the end of the day, we just have to be able to, even though we are downfield, get down there and be able to tackle the quarterback before the first down.”
In total, Cook and Schrader combined for 260 rushing yards, and 86 of Schrader’s 116 receiving yards came after the catch.
To further put into perspective how much Missouri dictated how this game went, Missouri won the time of possession battle 39:56 to 20:04. In addition to Missouri’s mark nearly doubling Tennessee’s, the Tigers’ aforementioned 10+-minute drive took more than half of the time the Vols had possession in the game.
The 2022 or even 2021 Tennessee offense could, and did, win games in which they significantly lost the time of possession battle. But this 2023 Tennessee offense can’t overcome that much adversity. It’s limited in which types of games it can win when the defense isn’t going to win it for them.
It was a night to forget for Tennessee. And now, the Vols host the back-to-back reigning National Champions in the Georgia Bulldogs who haven’t lost a game in nearly two years next week.
Kickoff from Neyland Stadium next weekend is set for 3:30 p.m. ET. CBS will broadcast the game.
