Offensive grades part II
Wide receives: D+
Velus Jones Jr. kept this from being an F with his four receptions for 70 yards and a touchdown. However, three of his catches and his TD were in garbage time. Don’t forget that the Vols receivers never got separation on the day. Josh Palmer refused to go up for a 50-50 ball. Jimmy Holiday dropped a wide open pass on a fake punt. All of those plays proved disastrous.
Tight ends: C
For the first time in a while, the tight ends weren’t responsible for catastrophic mistakes in pass blocking. However, they didn’t make many plays either. Princeton Fant had three catches for 23 yards, but that was it. As a result, this unit just didn’t do enough, so we gave it an average grade.
Offensive line: D
Injuries at center were part of this, as were issues with Darnell Wright on the outside. In general, though, this unit was awful. Tennessee football was sacked six times on the day, and they averaged fewer than two and a half yards a carry.
Overall offensive grade: C-
When you only score seven points through the first three and a half quarters, there’s not much to celebrate. However, even if two of them were in garbage time, there’s no way to deny the success of three drives of 90 yards or more. Still, this unit was slightly below average.