Watch: Josh Heupel Reacts to Tennessee’s First Loss

Athen, Ga.-- The stage was set for the Tennessee to go to Athens and take another step towards the College football playoffs, but Kirby Smart's Georgia team

Athen, Ga.-- The stage was set for the Tennessee to go to Athens and take another step towards the College football playoffs, but Kirby Smart's Georgia team derailed the Vols on Saturday. Heupel reacts to the Vols first loss of 2022 in the video above. Below are our thoughts from the box.

Offensive Woes

We will touch on the defensive struggles shortly, but this is the first time all year we have had to talk about a struggling offense. Tennessee seemingly could not get out of their own way on Saturday afternoon and never found an offensive rhythm. Georgia disrupted the pocket with an interior pass rush and created havoc for Hendon Hooker. While it looked like Hooker was holding the ball, this was true, but it was in large part because Georgia just had guys covered. The Vols crossed over into Georgia territory twice at pivotal moments in the game and came away with nothing because of sacks and pre-snap penalties. Tennessee had no luck with Jalin Hyatt or Cedric Tillman breaking away for explosives, and Georgia basically allowed Tennessee to check underneath and flowed to the football and smothered the Vols offensive attack.

Third Downs

Tennessee could not get off the field on third down defensively and struggled to convert third downs offensively. The Vols seemingly played in third and long on offense and third and short on defense. This is a recipe for disaster against any team, especially Georgia. More importantly, Georgia created significant advantages with their third downs, converting shot plays and pushing Tennessee into even more precarious situations on fourth down. Heading into the fourth quarter the Vols were one for nine on third down, opposed to Georgia being six for nine.

Physicality

Haven't talked about this much with Tennessee this year, and there is good reason why, because the Vols have been far and away the more physical team in almost every single contest. Today, Georgia out-physicaled the Vols in all three phases and is what ultimately played a huge role in the game being as lopsided as it was. Granted, Georgia is chocked full of recruited talent and Tennessee is still in year two, but the Vols were tested physically today, and they did not respond.

Secondary Alignment

Tennessee had opportunities to get Georgia off the field on several occasions, but the Vols were unable to do so, and I attribute some of that to scheme or alignment. I understand what Tennessee is doing in terms of bending and not breaking, but on third and six, I question having your corner eight yards off the football and letting a pass get completed at the sticks with three to four yards of separation. Maybe there is a pre-snap alignment issue, maybe the corner is supposed to sit on a route to the sticks and it is not working out, which would make sense, considering Tennessee is looking to create turnovers as frequently as possible, but something is not working with it. Tennessee will have to fix this moving forward as it was seriously picked on by the Bulldogs today.