Tennessee survives another SEC road trip as the Vols beat Mississippi State 41-34 after a rough showing on offense.
Winning on the road in the SEC is never easy, and Jeff Lebby's Mississippi State team was not going to be a cakewalk either. The Bulldogs started the year 4-0, and the home fans created a loud environment and strong home-field advantage.
Tennessee's defense played one of its best games of the year, despite giving up 34 points. Two turnovers, both of which resulted in defensive touchdowns.
Mississippi State started the game hot, thanks to a Tennessee turnover, but Tennessee's defense quickly settled in after that, slowing down a strong Mississippi State offense.
On the offensive side of the ball, Josh Heupel's offense has notoriously struggled on the road. The Vols' high-powered, up-tempo offense doesn't travel well in the SEC, and that was no different on Saturday.
Tennessee only scored three offensive touchdowns in regulation, but the Tennessee defense kept the Vols in the game for all four quarters.
Despite the Vols' struggle to find the end zone, they were able to move the football fairly well throughout the game. Joey Aguilar threw for 335 yards and a touchdown, while the team finished the game with 466 yards of total offense.
If Tennessee is able to clean up its self-inflicted issues, such as turnovers, penalties, and dropped passes, the team won't have any issues winning games like this in the future.
If you take away turnovers and half the dropped passes alone, the Vols might win this game by two scores. Tennessee must improve in those areas if it wants to beat Arkansas next week and win another big road game when it heads to Alabama in two weeks.