Offense, a tale of two halfs

[PirateVOL]

In the first half there was breakdown after break down on the OL and TE, play after play.

In the 2nd half there were still some breakdowns but they were far fewer and further spaced out.  Thomas really improved his play in the 2nd half.  Robertson was about the same.  Robertson and Crowder had communication issues all night.  Communications issues between Crowder and Jackson were far less.The most consistent lineman all  night was Jackson.
For the most part we picked up blitzes better in the 2nd half.

Worley started the 2nd half throwing poorly (3 straight series with a bad pass on 1st down) but threw better late in the 3rd and the 4th quarters.
There was some really good play calls in the 2nd half, used more counter action (first Hurd long run was a well blocked counter). The 2nd Hurd run was just good execution on the read option. with a nice 2fer block by Helm.

Helm had a few issues in the first half but in the 2nd half he blocked much better.  Not perfect but good enough for more PT, even when Wolf returns.

Smith's injury could impact our offense.  He is the most consistent receiver getting separation.  

In summary, there were in game adjustments by the staff, in game improvement in play by several players.
The film study of the game and the bye week should allow correction of some technique issues and hopefully help the communication issues.
Wolf should be back for the pups and Pearson back for the crocs (possibly) or Ole Miss (who are very vulnerable to the pass).  If Smith has a high ankle sprain we probably won't see him again till Ole Miss.

The future:
The key against the pups is can we score more than Gurley and their offense?  I think we can, especially with the probability of Chubb being out.  Their run game is better than OU but their passing game is not real scary at the moment.  They have no real equivalent to #3 for OU.

UF is winnable.  I believe we are better overall than the crocs, and we are home - Neyland needs to be rocking
Chickens we could/should win.  We should be able to exploit their defense and I think we will see a similar defense as Saturday night (in this game as well as possibly the pups) to sell out to stop the run.
I had pointed to the crocs and chickens as the two winnable early SEC games.  We should win at least one of the next two games