Tennessee 17, Ohio State 42

Siri, play "Tennessee" by Hank Williams, Jr....

Merry Christmas! Your late present is this, another rehash of the horrendous outing we saw in Columbus last weekend. You’re welcome.

Before we get to that, however, I want to share something I tweeted before we even knew who the Vols would be playing in the CFP:

And while the “whatever happens now” part turned out to be a wet fart in a white tuxedo, it doesn’t change the fact that—at the macro level—Tennessee had a great season. If you told me in August that UT would win 10 games, beat Florida and Alabama, and make the first-ever expanded college football playoff field, I would have signed up for it in a heartbeat. Even at the micro level, despite the frustrating nature of each of Tennessee’s three losses, there was a lot of fun to be had. From the unexpected flourishing of the Vols’ defense this season to Dylan Sampson smashing school records left and right and emerging as arguably the SEC’s best RB, there were a ton of fun stories to follow this season. So while we ditched “Friends in Low Places” as the 4th-quarter song this year, it might do some of us good to remember another Garth Brooks song. We could’ve missed the pain, but we would’ve had to miss the dance.

(Yes, I realize that’s a little cheesy. Doesn’t make it untrue.)

Five Factor Review

Well then, in the year’s last game, I finally got my wish. Tennessee scored a scintillating 5.67 points per opportunity. And the monkey’s paw curls as those points came on just three trips inside the Buckeye 40. Had you showed me just UT’s PPO and success rate before the game, I would’ve thought Tennessee ran away with this game. Even if you showed me OSU’s PPO and success rate alongside UT’s, I would’ve thought this was a shootout that could’ve gone either way. It was Tennessee’s lack of creating scoring opportunities, lack of havoc, and horrific starting field position together that tell the story of Ohio State’s dominance in this game.

Rushing Report

If, like myself, you’re frustrated with the offensive line’s play against OSU—or just in general this season—you still have to give them this: the Tennessee OL was excellent in getting an initial push this season in the run game. UT finished the season top 10 in power success and line yards, and 3rd nationally in stuff rate. That means they did not let teams stop the run at or behind the line of scrimmage, and they created forward movement in the run game as well as any OL out there. That’s the design of this offense—create forward movement, transfer that into tempo, make the defense commit more players to the box, and burn them on the perimeter. For all the talk about opposing defenses having “figured out” Tennessee’s attack, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the approach. But, there has to be an upgrade to the pass block element and an upgrade to WRs that can create separation in order to make those perimeter plays available.

Player Usage & PPA

In all but three games this year, Tennessee’s defense held opposing QBs to negative PPA. I bet you can guess which three games were the outliers. And on top of that, Carson Beck and Will Howard turned in some of their best work of the season against the Vols. And when you compare Howard’s best quarters against Nico’s worst:

You can see where the game went sideways in a hurry. Not blaming Nico here at all, but the offense overall had no answers when OSU was lighting up the scoreboard in the 1st and 3rd quarters.

Extraneous

The Horseshoe is a cathedral. By that I mean it feels like a place that was built 400 years before the emergence of indoor plumbing. Columbus is a dump, the Olentangy is a sewer, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.