TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tennessee football had not played particularly well through the first 29 minutes of its 37-20 loss at Alabama Saturday night. But the Vols were on the doorstep of scoring a touchdown to cut Alabama’s lead to just 16-14 at the intermission. That’s when disaster struck.
Tennessee had it first-and-goal at the two-yard line with one timeout. The Vols tried to run the ball on first down but picked up just one yard and had to take their final timeout. Tennessee brought out the heavy, goal line formation and went play action with Zabien Brown intercepting Joey Aguilar’s pass and taking it 100 yards for a pick six.
“End of the first half, nine seconds, no timeouts,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said of the sequence. “You’re left with a decision. Do you want two opportunities or one? So we got a little play action. He leaves the ball inside a bit and it goes back for six. Big play in the football game for sure.”
Aguilar’s pass was on Miles Kitselman’s inside hip, but the play calling was extremely questionable. Out of timeouts, Tennessee had to pass the ball if they were going to have time for multiple plays. That made play action fairly obvious in that spot
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“I mean, they understand the situation as well,” Heupel said on if the play call was too predictable. “Got a one-two read and ultimately you have to be on the right side of it. It’s there or it’s not. We have to be accurate with the ball or if not throw it away, you got one more play. That’s not me putting it on Joey either. Ultimately, it’s all of us.”
Going play action out of jumbo was all the more questionable because Alabama took a timeout after seeing Tennessee line up in the jumbo set. Heupel said that Tennessee called the play after the timeout and not before. But Alabama was far from fooled. Alabama’s linebackers and defensive backs dropped back into coverage. Even one defensive lineman dropped into coverage.
Heupel is correct that it could have easily not been a pick six if Aguilar’s pass had been more accurate. But the play call did not set Tennessee’s offense up for success.
The Vols responded well out of halftime but was never able to fully recover. Tennessee never again cut Alabama’s lead to one-score as the potential 14-point swing proved completely back breaking.
One Response
9 seconds in the half at the 2 with no timeouts and they go jumbo. Everyone knows they’re gonna pass there but they take their best WRs off the field. I just don’t get it. It’s not just JH, it’s the majority of college coaches who try to be too clever for their own good. This would never happen in the NFL. Why not just take a shot, kick the FG and go into halftime down 6? So, you’ve got a non-professional QB? Even more reason to play it conservative there. The jumbo package made no sense there.