Vols lose to Missouri, still not bowl eligible
Missouri romp keeps Tennessee’s hopes of bowl game on hold
KNOXVILLE — Everything was so different just one week earlier.
Now Tennessee is caught searching for answers and without a lot of time to do so.
A week after looking dominant in a 17-point victory over then-12th-ranked Kentucky, Tennessee took a step back to reality Saturday. The Missouri offense carved up the Volunteers’ defense and the Tennessee offense was unable to keep up in a 50-17 Southeastern Conference loss to the Tigers in front of 88,224 at Neyland Stadium.
The loss still leaves the Vols (5-6, 2-5) a win away from bowl eligibility with a game at Vanderbilt this week. The Commodores (4-6, 1-5) hosted Ole Miss on Saturday night.
“Sometimes a score doesn’t indicate how you played,” Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “When you go back and look at the game last week, we made 50 mental errors on defense and just didn’t get exposed. I don’t know if we made 50 mental errors today, but I do know that we had some that were critical, and you can’t do that. We had chances to get off the field, and we didn’t do it defensively a few times, which I felt like we should have, going off of what we had called and the play they ran.
“Again, our margin of error is not large enough. Our offense after the first quarter moved the ball some and put some points on the board, but it’s just the turnovers giving them a short field. We have to be a little more consistent on both sides of the ball.”
The Tigers rang up 29 first downs and 484 yards
of total offense in offensive coordinator Derek Dooley’s return to Neyland, with quarterback Drew Lock throwing for 257 and the rushing attack finishing with 227. Dooley was the head coach of the Vols from 2010 to 2012, compiling a 15-21 record before being fired prior to the last game of the 2012 season.
The Vols lost starting quarterback Jarrett Guarantano after the team’s second possessiom Saturday. The 6-foot-4, 209-pounder was sacked on the first drive and came off appearing shaken up. He returned for the next possession but then went to the locker room and did not return. Backup Keller Chryst came in and had a
trio of 40-yard completions that led to points but finished 7-of-19 for 173 yards and was intercepted twice by DeMarkus Acy.
The first of those interceptions came with the Vols down 19-10 and driving late in the first half, three plays after a 33-yard run by Ty Chandler into Missouri territory. Acy returned the pickoff 76 yards before being pushed out of bounds by Chryst, and the Tigers scored three plays later to take a 26-10 lead into halftime.
Tennessee’s offense never was able to get on track. A week after gaining more than 400 yards in probably their most balanced game of the season against Kentucky, the Vols turned the ball over three times and finished with 255 yards. Their 215 yards rushing against the Wildcats dropped to 82 against the Tigers,
who were credited with three sacks totaling 20 yards in losses.
“It wasn’t just one particular thing. It was just execution across the board,” center Ryan Johnson said. “We got beat; they played better than us tonight. We don’t have consistency right now, and it’s something we have to work on. It’s frustrating losing like that, but we have to focus on the next game, focus on the next opponent.
“We’ve got to focus on Vanderbilt and get to a bowl game, so we’ve got to focus on us and what we can do better. It’s about us; it’s not about our opponent. It’s about what we can improve on and what we can do better.”
The Vols defense held the visitors to field goals on their first two drives. Tennessee then took a 7-6 lead after a 41-yard completion from Chryst to Jauan Jennings led to a 6-yard touchdown
run by Ty Chandler, but Missouri’s Tyler Badie scored from 4 yards out to put Missouri back on top for good.
Chandler scored the second of his two touchdowns on the Vols’ first possession of the second half, cutting the Missouri lead to 26-17, but the Tigers responded by scoring the final 24 points of the game, with a pair of scoring runs and a Joshuah Bledsoe fumble recovery for a score.
“It’s very frustrating,” Tennessee defensive end Kyle Phillips said of the team’s inconsistency. “We talked this past week about sustaining, and we did not sustain. Playing in this league, every week is going to be a battle. The people at the top or the people at the bottom, it’s the SEC, so it’s the best conference in the country.
“We’ve just got to make sure
we keep that sustainability for the rest of the season. We’ve got to do a better job of that for sure, because that definitely translates to the game. I think we might have let off a little bit, and we’ve got to make sure we learn how to sustain. That’s how the people at the top stay at the top. We’ve got to learn that for the future.”
Chandler led the Vols with 82 yards on the ground on 14 carries. Marquez Callaway had 98 yards on a pair of 49-yard pass receptions.
Larry Rountree had 135 yards on the ground and a score for the Tigers, while Johnathon Johnson had seven receptions for 53 yards and a score. Emanuel Hall led the Tigers with 74 receiving yards.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.