Down by 16 with 6:22 remaining in the game, Tennessee’s resiliency showed once again.
Much like three weeks ago when they came back against South Carolina, the Volunteers followed up a Missouri touchdown drive with a score of their own.
The 14-play, 79-yard drive, which was capped off with a four-yard passing touchdown and a two-point conversion run — both by Joshua Dobbs — drew UT within eight with 1:52 to go.
A comeback to force overtime, however, was not in the script.
After two controversial onside kicks went against the Vols, Missouri ran out the clock and handed UT a 29-21 loss to keep their bowl eligibility on the fringe.
“Very proud of our kids,” Tennessee head coach Butch Jones said. “They didn’t quit. They kept scratching and clawing, but winning is very fragile. We had too many mistakes.”
Trailing by eight with only two timeouts at their disposal, the Vols (5-6, 2-5 SEC) elected to go for the onside kick in hope of getting the ball back with enough time to put together a game-tying drive.
And for a moment, it seemed like the Vols had done just that, as junior wide receiver Von Pearson jumped on the loose ball.
But two flags graced the field: One for offsides and the other for illegal touching. After a review negated the latter, though, UT got an opportunity to re-kick.
For the second consecutive kick, the ball was recovered by Tennessee, but once again the Vols were hit with an illegal touching penalty.
This time, the penalty was not reversed.
“It’s tough, it really is because if we get the ball we can win that game,” said freshman running back Jalen Hurd. “The way it turned out, it was unfortunate.”
After two contests in which they amassed more than 500 total yards, the Vols struggled offensively, due in large part to the pressure Missouri’s defense was able to apply on UT’s backfield.
The Tigers (9-2, 6-1) racked up six sacks and 12 tackles for loss — both more than the total Tennessee had allowed in its two previous contests combined — and only gave up 53 yards rushing.
In total, the Vols were held to just 279 yards on the night, never surpassing the 150-yard mark in either half.
“We knew it was going to be a field position game,” Jones said. “Their front seven is the best we’ve faced all year. Sometimes you have one defensive end that is a great player that you have to prepare for. Well they have two.
“They are very deep, and they are very talented, so we knew that yards were going to be at a premium.”
Much like in his first career start against Missouri a year ago, Dobbs struggled, throwing for 195 yards — 81 of which came on UT’s final scoring drive — a touchdown and an interception on 24-of-37 passing.
The sophomore quarterback was also held to a season-low 13 rushing yards on 17 carries.
“They were a good defense,” Dobbs said. “We definitely made some mistakes out there that we have to clean up. We knew coming into the game what was in front of us.
“We have to fix the thing that we messed up on tonight and get ready for Vanderbilt.”
With the loss, the Vols still sit one win shy of being bowl eligible and will travel to Nashville, Tenn. to face off against the Commodores with an opportunity to achieve their season’s goal.
“We got one game and we got a lot to accomplish with this football team,” Jones said. “We are not going to hang our head. Shoot, some people didn’t even think we would be playing for a bowl game the last game of the year. We got a lot of positive things going on. It hurts. It is disappointing, but I’m ready to go back to work right now and so is this football team. We got a lot to play for this week.
“It’s a one-game season.”
