Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols’ 40-13 win at LSU

3. Awful pass coverage

Despite holding LSU to 13 points, the pass coverage remained awful. Tennessee football allowed Jayden Daniels to complete 32-of-45 passes for 300 yards and a touchdown. Although the Vols also came away with an interception, this was an issues that could have made it a game late if they didn’t do what they should have done.

Now, in general, the pass defense was still significantly better that what happened two weeks ago against Florida. Still, it’s a concern. Linebackers struggle significantly in coverage, and safeties, Jaylen McCollough in particular, have a bad habit of getting out of position.

It’s hard to overlook this primarily because of the fact that Daniels was injured coming into the game. How do you give credit to a defense that allowed 300 yards and over six and a half passing yards an attempt to a banged up quarterback? You can’t no matter how hard you try.

Dee Williams provided some help in this game with Warren Burrell out, but he obviously helped a lot more with his 58-yard punt return to spot Tennessee football a 10-0 lead. In general, they still have a lot of work to do when it comes to defending the pass, and that also includes what the linebackers can do in coverage.