Tennessee football Smokey Points: Top 5 Vols performers in loss at Georgia
There is seriously nothing to debate here. Even in a 38-12 loss, Darrell Taylor should be the SEC Defensive Player of the Week. He turned in a historic performance that will not soon be matched by anybody in this league.
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As Tennessee football’s pass rush came alive, Taylor was the star. The junior linebacker finished the game with six tackles, two of which were for a loss. He also, meanwhile, had two strip-sacks and another solo sack, making for two forced fumbles and three sacks. Simply put, he was the playmaker of the year for the Vols.
Seriously, this was the best game any individual has had for UT all season. Taylor was amazing from start to finish, and he is thriving in his new role as outside linebacker. The only problem in this game is the breaks didn’t go his way.
Taylor’s two strip-sacks were both recovered by the Georgia Bulldogs. The first was on UGA’s first drive with the game scoreless and on third down. All Georgia did was recover that ball and run it in for a touchdown.
They recovered the second one later in the first half and turned it into a field goal. So the Vols easily could have wiped 10 points off the board that the Dawgs had, and it would have all been due to Taylor. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a teammate to recover one of the fumbles he forced.
Related Story. 5 takeaways from Vols loss to Georgia Bulldogs. light
However, Tennessee football should still be very proud of the way Taylor played. He has proven himself to be a force before, but this was incredible. Maybe it was his coming out party as part of the entire front seven’s arrival. With a bye week coming, it could only get better. And Taylor is a huge part of that.