Tennessee football: Vols could be five mistakes away from 4-0

2. Florida Gators

Key play:

Jarrett Guarantano misses Dominick Wood-Anderson for a sure touchdown

So we’ve established how Tennessee football could have tied it up with the Florida Gators early on the last slide. However, this play could have given them a surprise early lead in the game, and it was a critical miss by Jarrett Guarantano.

After that Guarantano interception, the Vols defense came through for a second-straight time, stopping the Florida Gators on 4th down past midfield. Then, Jim Chaney dialed up another perfect play-call that resulted in Dominick Wood-Anderson being wide open in the secondary.

However, Guarantano missed Wood-Anderson on the pass. He threw it too late, so it didn’t get to him. That cost the Vols another shot at a game-tying touchdown, but if you combine it with the previous slide’s mistakes, it cost them a chance to take the lead.

Following that missed pass, Guarantano threw an interception on the very next play. That interception was a result of the previous failed touchdown, and it set Florida up in field goal range. The defense held, but the Gators were still able to go up 10-0 with the field goal.

As a result, this was a 10-point swing. Combine it with the previous mistake that Jennings made, and this was a 17-point swing. Already, the Vols should have gone into halftime tied 14-14 instead of down 17-14. And we can say that had they scored here, they may have had a bit more momentum to keep playing and stop Florida from scoring on that final drive.