Tennessee Volunteers Defensive Grade Report vs Arkansas

Tennessee suffered their first football loss of the 2024 season. That loss would come from the hands of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The final score was 19-14 and the Vols would drop down to No. 8 in the AP Poll.

The defensive effort was judged differently by many social media entities which led to Tennessee on SI bringing their opinions on the defensive grade report of each position group.

This group played well for the majority of the contest only giving up a few big plays in the run game. They did a great job limiting Taylen Green’s running ability holding him to -5 yards on the day with 9 attempts to break through. That was the clear game plan coming into the game as they would hope to stop Green’s passing ability and would struggle to do so. Tennessee would sack Green only twice. Once from star edge rusher James Pearce Jr. and another from Daevin Hobbs. Tennessee also did a good job with tackles for loss having seven total. Even the ones that were credited to the defensive backs or linebackers were thanks to a great defensive line play a majority of the time. Bryson Eason would have an injury in this one and wouldn’t return which isn’t a good sign.

The Vols linebackers did a great job stopping anything that got through the defensive line. Not many plays made it past the second level in the run game. Keenan Pili would have an amazing game having 14 total tackles with 4 solo tackles on the day. Arion Carter would have 1.5 TFLs, 8 total tackles, and 1 pass deflection on the day to be the complete counterpart to an already solid version of Pili. Jeremiah Telander wasn’t a drop-off when subbing in and he looked like he belonged out there. The worst factor about this is the amount of passes across the middle. Overall it was a solid day for this group.

This was the worst Tennessee group of the day. Tennessee could not get a stop in the secondary. Multiple players would dominate the defensive backroom. Tennessee would not only get beat in the pass game but they would be exposed. There weren’t many bright spots in this group and a lot of this is because of great passes from Green. Andre Armstrong would have 9 catches for 132 yards on the day and Isaiah Sategna would have 5 catches for 72 yards. Tennessee cannot struggle like this when they play even more talented groups such as Alabama when they will face players like Ryan Williams. If this carries over it will be a long season.

Tennessee is set to take on the Florida Gators in their next contest as they return to Neyland Stadium after a two game and three week road stretch.

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