No. 1 Tennessee (8-1, 4-1 SEC) dropped its first game of the season Saturday night, falling to No. 3 Georgia (9-0, 6-0) 27-13 at Sanford Stadium.
Mistakes and a lack of offense production killed Tennessee all game, meanwhile Georgia was near perfect on both sides of the ball.
“We did not play our best, cleanest football,” head coach Josh Heupel said. “Part of that was from them, that’s a really good football team. But there’s things we can control and be a whole lot better at too.”
Tennessee’s normal air-raid offense was shut down as Georgia lined up deep and forced Tennessee to keep things short.
On Georgia’s first drive of the game, Tennessee forced a fumble and capitalized with a field goal on the other end of the field. From there, very little went the Vols’ way in the first half.
Georgia answered the field goal on its next drive, scoring on a Stetson Bennett rushing touchdown. The Vols had no answer on the next drive, picking up several false starts to kill any momentum.
“Just shooting ourselves in the foot,” Hooker said. “They’re a great ball team. We have got to clean some things up. It’s a learning process.”
Mistakes were a theme for Tennessee in the first half as the Vols picked up six penalties with five of those being false starts. Hendon Hooker also threw his second interception of the season trying to find Cedric Tillman downfield.
“We’ve got to be better at protecting the ball – me included,” Hooker said. “We had a turnover, it’s unacceptable. We’ve got to play cleaner.”
For the Bulldogs, everything was going their way. Georgia tacked on two more touchdowns and then closed out the first half with a field goal.
Tennessee’s touchdown-less first half was the first time in the Heupel era that Tennessee didn’t score a touchdown in the first half.
Georgia drained nearly nine minutes of clock on its first drive of the second half, leaving Tennessee with little time to try and mount a comeback.
Tennessee fumbled in the third quarter, but got the ball right back as Georgia fumbled on the next play. Ultimately it didn’t matter as the Vols weren’t able to score on the drive.
The Vols were able to muster up a touchdown with under five minutes to go, but it was too little, too late as Georgia ran down the clock on the next possession.
Tennessee’s offense – which averaged nearly 50 points a game coming into Saturday – was uncharacteristically quiet against Georgia. The Vols had just 289 yards of total offense and key receivers Tillman and Jalin Hyatt were both held under 70 receiving yards.
The atmosphere inside Sanford Stadium played a big role Saturday. Tennessee’s offense continued to make mistakes as the decibel level rose, peaking at 132 decibels in the fourth quarter.
“We knew we were going to come into a hostile environment,” defensive lineman Omari Thomas said. “Their fans were very loud. They did what they were going to do.”
The game just adds to the long list of hostile environments Tennessee has seen this season. For the Vols, it also brings another opportunity to grow.
“It’s a learning experience,” Hooker said. “Just playing in this environment and not having the outcome that we wanted, it’s tough. But continuing to push forward and continuing to chip away and do the right things day after day, time after time was the most important thing that I wanted to communicate to the team.”
The loss for the Vols severely damages Tennessee’s College Football Playoff hopes. Barring a fluke loss from Georgia, the Bulldogs will win the SEC East. Tennessee will have to be perfect in its three remaining games to try and sway the CFP Committee into giving it a spot in the playoff.
“Getting to Atlanta is a whole lot tougher now,” Heupel said. “That’s the No. 1 goal inside our program. Our kids have handled a bunch of adversity throughout their careers inside this program.”
Tennessee can’t dwell on the loss for too long. The Vols still have a lot of football to play, starting with Missouri next week.
“It’s a next-game mentality for us,” Hyatt said. “Just how (Heupel) is, win, lose or draw he’s going to be the same guy every day. For us, we just have to learn from our mistakes – that’s definitely first.”
No. 1 Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint celebrates with No. 69 Tate Ratledge after his touchdown reception in win over Tennessee on Nov. 4.
