Tennessee Volunteers overcome sluggish offense, jet lag to take down Texas A&M and keep CFP hopes alive
History repeated itself seven days later in College Station, as the Vols overcame a sluggish first half and a quarterback injury to vanquish Texas A&M on the road and keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Key points
- Things looked bleak until, ironically, Tennessee was bit with the injury bug when starting quarterback George MacIntyre went out midway through the third quarter.
- Last week, the Tennessee Volunteers needed a fourth quarter explosion to put the Kentucky Wildcats away.
- For the Vols, a letdown almost surely would have meant the end of their CFP aspirations, as a third loss could have put those dreams on life support.
FAA GROUND STOP LIFTED ON FRIDAY NIGHT, BUT SOME COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS STILL SCRAMBLING TO TRAVEL Although Tennessee coach Josh Heupel likely won't admit it, his team's late arrival in the Lone Star State may have contributed to their sleepy start on offense.
Additional details
- If Tennessee can replicate this formula of salty defense and controlling the time of possession, they will be a hard out in December and beyond.
- Saturday's loss has the Aggies in danger of missing a bowl game, and they still have a showdown with a surging Texas squad to end the season.
- From that point, the Vols remembered they could run the ball and run it quite well at that, rushing for 196 yards on the day and holding the ball for over 42 minutes.
- Luckily for Heupel, his defense was up for the challenge, harassing Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed all afternoon to the tune of just 71 yards passing.
- If they can navigate that stretch undefeated, they will be a shoo-in to make the CFP.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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