Yesterday's game was like a horror movie featuring the three most dreaded things in college football: injuries, turnovers and incompetent officiating.
Never would I have expected to go to Texas A&M and dominate the game, and I certainly wouldn't have expected it after the injuries we accumulated in the first five weeks. Throw in all the injuries suffered as Saturday's game progressed, and we should've been dominated. That never happened. Somehow Bob Shoop managed to keep patching the holes, Mike DeBord called arguably the best game of his Tennessee tenure, and the Vols would've been the ones to dominate if not for the turnovers.
The coaches don't get all praise and pats on the back. The turnovers weren't just misfortune. They've been lurking. You don't put the ball on the ground 15 times in five games, only lose three of them, and not have that catch up with you at some point. Ball security is a point that isn't being coached very well, and we have six games of evidence to back that up. And while Dobbs was just a player trying to make plays, it's especially frustrating to know that he could've just fallen on two of the fumbles instead of trying to pick them up. Either one of them would likely have helped us avoid overtime.
I woke up this morning thinking that on one hand I'm encouraged by the fact that we turned the ball over a school-record seven times against the No. 8 team, in their place, and still almost won the game, in spite of all the injuries. It makes me feel better about our team, and it really makes me feel better about our coaching staff. On the other hand, I'm disgusted by the fact that we hung more yards on Texas A&M (784) than they've EVER given up in their history, against a defensive coordinator that 10+ SEC schools would hire in a heartbeat, and still couldn't win the game and launch ourselves into the national championship picture because we couldn't hang on to the damn ball.
This game was vitally important. Win it, and next week (which we probably aren't going to have a shot in because of all the injuries) wouldn't matter. We could get to Atlanta healthy and get our revenge, and head to the playoffs as a one-loss SEC champion. Now we'll have to root on someone to upset Florida to even get to the championship game. That's disgusting on several levels.
As for the officiating, yesterday's game featured one of the worst crews I've seen in a LONG time. Usually when a lot of calls are missed, you just think the crew is incompetent, but it's hard to swallow that so many of the bad calls went one direction. Genessy, their left tackle, was leaving his stance early on almost every passing play in the first half to try to get the jump on Barnett. He finally got flagged twice in the second half, but there were many that weren't called. I'm not 100% that Dobbs' first fumble was actually a fumble. Maybe it was, but it should've been reviewed just to be sure. The fourth quarter catch on the sideline by Jennings, where he was interfered with, appeared to be an obvious reception, but it was ruled incomplete and was not reviewed. There's no way in hell that the Evan Berry fumble should've stood. That was a penalty by the very definition of the rule. (I can't describe the disgust I have for that smarmy jackass Danielson not even mentioning this fact, while then presuming to lecture us on player safety after the Nigel Warrior hit.) That, too, is a reviewable play...but it wasn't reviewed. Their DBs got away with numerous pass interferences. (We did, too, on their final drive of regulation...funny how Danielson pointed that out but didn't point out any of the obvious fouls their DBs got away with.) On their 2OT touchdown, there was an obvious and blatant hold that prevented Malik Foreman from getting to Knight to make the stop. That isn't an exhaustive list by any means, but it's a start. Just retched officiating all the way around. Inexcusable for a Top 10 game.
In the end, though, we beat ourselves with the turnovers. That sucks. Knowing we're good enough to beat Alabama, but probably won't because of all the injuries, that might suck even more.
you missed some all SEC holds on DB9 as well as a beautiful WWE take down of O'Brien right in front of the white hat, text book holding
My biggest complaint about the crew is their incompetent handling of the routine issues, I was reminded of the Stare Farm commercial several times yesterday.
