Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vol 23-22 Gator Bowl win vs. Indiana

5. Far too many mistakes kept this game close.

If not for the final few minutes of the game, we’d have a list of mostly negative things to say about Tennessee football in this game. After all, the Vols made mistake after mistake in this one, and nobody was spared.

It started with a holding penalty on the first play. Holding and false start penalties killed multiple drives. The Vols had a false start penalty that nearly cost them the game late because it stopped the clock as they were potentially going for the win on a 4th and 1 play.

Those weren’t the only issues in the trenches. The Vols drew far too many offside penalties on the other side in the game, keeping multiple drives alive. They had three on third downs in the game, which is just unacceptable.

We already mentioned Jarrett Guarantano’s two interceptions. One of them, however, came because he was hit as he threw the ball and really had no chance. It was the play that put Indiana in the game. Also, numerous red zone running plays early on were defined by missed blocks.

Then, on defense, despite consistently getting a great pass rush, the Vols could not contain Peyton Ramsey, which is why he ran for 54 yards and a touchdown despite being sacked four times. Simply put, mistake after mistake made for an ugly game. The rust of the layoff clearly showed, and it nearly resulted in disaster. But a win is a win, and that’s what UT got.