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Tennessee Loses to Arkansas: What We Learned About the Vols

By Caleb Calhoun

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Here are three things we learned about the Tennessee Volunteers football team in their 24-20 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks Saturday.

The Tennessee Vols are in big trouble now. We are barely into October, and this football team is 2-3, this season appears to be a loss, and nothing anybody hoped for at the beginning of the year has come to fruition.

With Georgia and Alabama on the horizon, 2-5 is now likely.

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Weaknesses all over the field are surrounding this football team, and they are being exposed more and more each week.

To be fair, Joshua Dobbs was actually not terrible this game, as he threw for 230 yards.

But the running game was shut down in the second half, the defense got tired, and play calling is still questionable.

So with another rough loss, here are three things we learned about the Vols after this game.

The Wide Receivers Are Massive Under-Achievers

Tennessee’s Wide Receiver-U title is in serious question after this game. The Arkansas Razorbacks sold out to stop Jalen Hurd in the second half, and that is exactly what they should have done.

While Joshua Dobbs may struggle with accuracy sometimes, there is no excuse for guys like Josh Malone, Preston Williams, and Von Pearson to struggle to make big plays given what they were recruited to do. Even with passes that might not be perfectly on target, they need to be good enough to pull them in.

And they have not been.

This loss is largely on them.

Tennessee Has a Terrible Pass Defense When Things Break Down

The Vols might have set a record this season for most first downs surrendered when they force the quarterback on the run. Every time things break down, they panic, particularly in the secondary, and get out of position.

True, defensive backs can only stay with players for so long. But every time a quarterback rolls out against Tennessee, a safety gets out of position. It should be a good thing when you have a quarterback on the run.

It’s the opposite against Tennessee’s defense.

The Offensive Line is Still a Work in Progress

Tennessee’s offensive line rotates a lot of players, and it clearly shows in lots of situations. But the line as a whole as a work in progress, and perhaps we were too quick to expect a lot out of that unit this year.

The line has a lot of raw talent but players who are still not completely comfortable in this system, so while it is better than last year, it should not have been expected to be great.

This unit, unlike the wide receivers, has a built-in excuse to struggle.

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