First, I give zero you know whats about conference pride. I love that Tennessee took the big L.
That said, the ease with which Ohio State threw the ball at Tennessee raises some red flags for me. Tennessee's pass D was always overrated and mostly the product of a terrible schedule, and we exposed it to some degree, but goodness, that was something else last night. Very little pass rush, and easy access throws at the edges of their zones plus a lot of misdirection swing passes that kept the chains moving, and the over-the-top throws to Smith were just the icing on the cake.
The contrast between the two offenses was stark. Is this just a weird, one-off road game, or are SEC offenses down this year generally? No one in the SEC moved the ball this easily on Tennessee all year, road or not, including us. And is that because the conference didn't really have any elite offenses?
Bama's QB is a head case. Tennessee--we saw that all year. Texas doesn't scare anyone deep. Ole Miss can get going at times but didn't light the scoreboard up all year. LSU had major OL issues. UGA is philosophically opposed to scoring in the first half. UF has a freshman QB who throws a pretty deep ball to go along with pretty interceptions over the middle
It seems like with every SEC team this year, you can take their strength away and make them one-dimensional. All of those teams are still good enough, that on a given week, they can give you trouble, but there just isn't a dominant offense throughout the league. And perhaps that explains why Tennessee struggled so much, because they haven't played against a very good and balanced offense all season?
The other thing that struck me is that Tennessee did not make very good adjustments. Ohio State scored three TDs in each half, and almost all of them were the product of moving the ball down field, not turnovers by Tennessee.
We have a lot more speed at LB, so I'm somewhat hopeful that we could squelch some of these easy access throws, but at the same time, if we play as undisciplined as we did against Tech, Ohio State's misdirection would give us a lot of problems as well. None of that matters if we don't beat Notre Dame, but Ohio State is the team I want to play the least.
That said, the ease with which Ohio State threw the ball at Tennessee raises some red flags for me. Tennessee's pass D was always overrated and mostly the product of a terrible schedule, and we exposed it to some degree, but goodness, that was something else last night. Very little pass rush, and easy access throws at the edges of their zones plus a lot of misdirection swing passes that kept the chains moving, and the over-the-top throws to Smith were just the icing on the cake.
The contrast between the two offenses was stark. Is this just a weird, one-off road game, or are SEC offenses down this year generally? No one in the SEC moved the ball this easily on Tennessee all year, road or not, including us. And is that because the conference didn't really have any elite offenses?
Bama's QB is a head case. Tennessee--we saw that all year. Texas doesn't scare anyone deep. Ole Miss can get going at times but didn't light the scoreboard up all year. LSU had major OL issues. UGA is philosophically opposed to scoring in the first half. UF has a freshman QB who throws a pretty deep ball to go along with pretty interceptions over the middle
It seems like with every SEC team this year, you can take their strength away and make them one-dimensional. All of those teams are still good enough, that on a given week, they can give you trouble, but there just isn't a dominant offense throughout the league. And perhaps that explains why Tennessee struggled so much, because they haven't played against a very good and balanced offense all season?
The other thing that struck me is that Tennessee did not make very good adjustments. Ohio State scored three TDs in each half, and almost all of them were the product of moving the ball down field, not turnovers by Tennessee.
We have a lot more speed at LB, so I'm somewhat hopeful that we could squelch some of these easy access throws, but at the same time, if we play as undisciplined as we did against Tech, Ohio State's misdirection would give us a lot of problems as well. None of that matters if we don't beat Notre Dame, but Ohio State is the team I want to play the least.
