Tennessee football vs. Georgia: 10 keys to the game

2. Explosive plays by Vols’ offense

Here is the one way Tennessee football can nullify sacks. They say sacks are drive killers, but Josh Heupel’s teams aren’t so much about drives as they are big plays. When we say big plays, we mean gigantic, explosive plays, the kind where just one a game changes things, but the Vols get three or four.

That happened last week. On the first play of the game, JaVonta Payton took a screen 75 yards for a touchdown. The next drive, Hendon Hooker found Velus Jones Jr. for a 72-yard touchdown pass. Jalin Hyatt seemingly had a 70-yard touchdown catch as well on the third drive but was ruled out after just 41 yards. Jabari Small then had a 37-yard touchdown run in the second half.

Simply put, big plays is the name of the game. Against a historically great defense, it’s Tennessee football’s only chance to make this a game as well. The Vols aren’t going to drive the ball on Georgia’s elite defense. They’ve got to somehow catch them off-guard.

What’s hard about this is that Heupel’s offense generally is established through the run, but against elite rush defenses, he showed last week he can use big plays through the air to set up the run if necessary. Can the Vols do that Saturday? That’ll be the story.