Tennessee football drops its third game of the season with a 33-24 loss to Oklahoma. The Sooners came into town and took advantage of some Tennessee turnovers to escape with the win.
It was a must-win game for Tennessee to keep its CFP hopes alive. The Vols came into the game as Playoff long shots and left the game virtually eliminated.
Tennessee outplayed Oklahoma, despite the loss. The Vols were dominant throughout the game on both ends of the ball, but weren't able to pull away in the first half, and Oklahoma did enough to control the second half.
The Vols turned the ball over three times throughout the game, and Oklahoma capitalized on all three, scoring 13 points off those three turnovers. That was ultimately the story of this game.
Tennessee's defense had one of its best performances of the season in conference play, but the offense didn't hold up its end of the bargain.
Joey Aguilar threw for 393 yards and three touchdowns, which would have been plenty good enough to win most conference games, but a couple of interceptions ultimately cost the Vols.
Oklahoma’s John Mateer threw for 159 yards and one interception, but that was just enough for the OU offense to score 33 points for the first time this year.
Besides the turnovers, Tennessee dominated the stat sheet 456 total yards to the Sooners’ 351 yards, 28 first downs over OU’s 19, and three penalties compared to Oklahoma’s 11 penalties.
Despite winning on paper, the Vols weren't good enough to get it done on the field Saturday night. The Vols beat themselves and now have to prepare to finish the last month of the season on a high note with a couple of more big games remaining on the schedule.