Tennessee football at Georgia: 10 keys to the game for Vols and Bulldogs

3. Can the Vols finish drives?

A recent development and the last time these two teams met both brings this into question. Tennessee football moved the ball in its 41-17 loss to Georgia last year. The issue, though, was that the Vols couldn’t finish drives. It started in the first half when they had to settle for a field goal after reaching the Georgia 7-yard line.

In the second half, they reached the red zone, field goal range and inside the Georgia 10 on their first three drives, and they came up empty-handed in all of them, suffering two turnovers on downs and then a fumble. Doing that this week will be a big issue, and there’s reason to worry that it can happen.

You may think this is a different UT team, but just last week, the Vols’ issues at finishing drives in their 44-6 win over Kentucky resurfaced. They also couldn’t take advantage of field position. Juwan Mitchell’s interception that set UT up in Kentucky territory ended in a three-and-out. A drive that brought up 2nd and 4 at the Kentucky 11 ended in a field goal.

Immediately after that field goal, the Vols got to the red zone before missing a field goal. Then they got to the Kentucky 24 late before eventually being knocked out of field goal range and forced to punt. Kentucky has a similar style to UGA, so this is a real concern, and the Vols have to address it if they are going to win.