Tennessee football lived oh, so dangerously at Mississippi State but survived. It overcame many mistakes, fought from behind in the fourth quarter, produced several clutch plays in overtime and finally turned back the Bulldogs, 41-34.
DeSean Bishop made the winning run, 25 yards, on the first play in the extra period. The Vol defense lost a lot of fights all over the field but won the last four plays just a few steps from the goal line.
The end felt like a strange combination of celebration and relief.
“Good road win against a good team, excited about that,” said Josh Heupel.
Coach Josh Heupel acknowledges the Vol fans in Starkville for the Mississippi State game. (Photo by Andrew Ferguson/ Tennessee Athletics)
That sounded like a serious under-assessment of the drama. Coach didn’t mention how close was the call and how narrow the escape. Josh did thank “awesome” Tennessee fans for their support. He saluted his players for hanging in there, for competing all the way. He recognized Joey Aguilar’s poise under pressure.
“One of the things we love about him.”
MSU has lost 13 consecutive league games but doesn’t look like a loser. The Vols and Bulldogs are both 4-1 today. Tennessee has an open date before it meets struggling Arkansas.
In the overall scheme of things, the victory in Starkville was so-what by Southeastern Conference standards. Tennessee was supposed to win. It was favored on the betting line. It has a bigger budget and a better roster and a national reputation.
So-what is so unfair. This was a big win in a difficult environment on a really tough playground. The home team won both sides of the line of scrimmage. If the Vols had run low on courage or lost their cool, the net result would have been a devastating defeat.
State looked like it was winning for much of the game. It turned three Tennessee turnovers (a fumbled punt and two interceptions) into touchdowns. With eight minutes remaining in regulation, the Bulldogs took a 34-27 lead. Weak knees might have folded. The Vols fought back.
Aguilar led a 14-play drive for 75 yards to get even. He converted fourth and four to Chris Brazzell. Mike Matthews contributed a spectacular catch with a Bulldog hanging on. Braylon Staley caught a ball and refused to go down until he made a first down.
Aguilar scored the tying touchdown on a six-yard run with 1:55 remaining.
Bishop’s break-away wasn’t the only drama in overtime. State earned a first down at the 5. Edwin Spillman kept it from being worse.
Joshua Josephs stopped quarterback Blake Shapen for no gain. Arion Carter and Bryson Eason combined to smother second down. The QB lost his footing on third down and Jalen McMurray pinned him. Carter made the play on fourth down.
Mistakes, errors and blunders? There were a few. Staley fumbled the first punt he tried to field and didn’t try to catch the second one that came his way. It rolled to the six-inch line. Boo Carter thereafter fielded punts.
The Vols just couldn’t stop State’s ground game. Six sacks reduced the Bulldogs’ yardage to 198. The Vols netted only 131 rushing.
Aguilar lost two interceptions off Miles Kitselman’s hands. Joey said the passes were poorly located. Max Gilbert missed another field goal try.
The Vols lost a 59-yard touchdown pass when Brazzell was flagged for offensive pass interference. I thought both the receiver and defender were hand-fighting. The Vols missed another TD when Matthews dropped a pass in an open field.
There were some big plus plays. Colton Hood picked off a pass and returned it 23 for a TD. Tyre West caused a State fumble and Josephs ran off with it, 41 yards for a score. Linebacker Arion Carter was credited with 17 tackles.
“We weren’t able to make the plays. They did make the plays to win it. That is this league,” said Jeff Leddy, coach of the Bulldogs.
Fair enough. Each team had 24 first downs. Tennessee had a 335-180 advantage in passing yardage. Tennessee turnovers provided short fields for State TDs.
Cowbells? Heupel heard ’em.
“I’m not sure the right way to describe it, but it’s a little bit of everything. We had a couple of false starts on tempo in short yardage situations that changed the way the game’s played. Those things are, they’re a part of it.”
Cowbells did not decide the game. The Vols did that.
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com
Hopefully–hopefully, we got our bad road game out of the way. I think, had it been any other Heupel coached Tennessee team, we would have lost Saturday. A win is a win.
Yesterday was sort of a lesson: rather than nit-picking all that went wrong, I am just going to remember how good it felt to win. No one can claim MSU did not want to win just as badly nor that their setting was less than daunting. Stopping their first, second, third, fourth and goal should rank up there with that other “stop” long ago. Good reporting of a good game…warts and all.