Tennessee's defense held Texas A&M to 179 total yards and one touchdown, limiting Marcel Reed to 71 passing yards. After starter George MacIntyre left in the third quarter, Tennessee rushed for 196 yards and held the ball for over 42 minutes.
Tennessee Overcomes Late Arrival, Slow Start and QB Injury to Beat Texas A&M and Keep CFP Hopes Alive
A third loss could have put those dreams on life support.
Mark
Tennessee won, but the story seems to start before kickoff. What happened?
Mimi
An FAA ground stop delayed the team's arrival. They got to the hotel just before 1 a.m. local time, and then played a road game that afternoon.
Luke
Careful there. The article says the late arrival may have caused the slow offense. That's the writer's guess, and Heupel hasn't said it.
Mark
Fair. So what is actually measurable about the win?
Mimi
The defense. Marcel Reed threw for 71 yards, and Texas A&M scored one touchdown on 179 total yards.
Mark
And the quarterback injury?
Mimi
George MacIntyre left midway through the third quarter. After that Tennessee ran for 196 yards and held the ball over 42 minutes.
Luke
We don't know the nature of the injury or his status. The piece doesn't say, and that matters for LSU.
Mark
Why does this game carry so much weight?
Mimi
A third loss could have put their playoff hopes on life support. Texas A&M, meanwhile, fell from the top 10 to unranked and may miss a bowl.
Luke
And the line that a 4-0 finish makes them a shoo-in is opinion. It's analysis, not a guarantee.
Il Polso
- Tennessee held Texas A&M to 179 total yards and one touchdown
- Marcel Reed threw for just 71 yards
- Tennessee rushed for 196 yards and held the ball over 42 minutes
- Vols arrived at the hotel just before 1 a.m. after an FAA ground stop
- Next: LSU, then Vanderbilt
Tennessee's defense held Texas A&M to 179 total yards and one touchdown, limiting Marcel Reed to 71 passing yards. After starter George MacIntyre left in the third quarter, Tennessee rushed for 196 yards and held the ball for over 42 minutes.
Tennessee overcame a slow start, a late arrival after an FAA ground stop, and a quarterback injury to beat Texas A&M on the road, keeping its College Football Playoff hopes alive.
The Tennessee Volunteers did not reach their team hotel in Texas until just before 1 a.m. local time on game weekend, held up by an FAA ground stop. By Saturday afternoon in College Station, they were playing Texas A&M on the road, and the offense looked like it had been up most of the night.
The first half was sluggish. Coach Josh Heupel is unlikely to blame the travel, but the Fox News analysis suggests the late arrival may have played a part in the sleepy start. That is the writer's inference, not something the team has said.
What kept Tennessee in the game was the defense. It harassed Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed all afternoon and held him to 71 passing yards. Texas A&M scored one touchdown for the entire game and finished with 179 total yards.
Then the Vols took a hit of their own. Starting quarterback George MacIntyre left the game midway through the third quarter with an injury. The source does not describe the injury or say how serious it is.
From there, Tennessee leaned on the run. The Vols rushed for 196 yards and held the ball for more than 42 minutes, which kept the Aggies' offense on the sideline. It echoed the previous week, when Tennessee needed a fourth-quarter surge to put away Kentucky.
The stakes were plain. A third loss would likely have put Tennessee's College Football Playoff hopes on life support, and a letdown on the road would almost surely have ended them. Instead, the hopes remain alive.
For Texas A&M the outcome is far harsher. The Aggies began the season as a top-10 team and have since dropped out of the AP top 25 entirely. Saturday's loss puts them in danger of missing a bowl game, and they close the season against a surging Texas team.
Tennessee's path is straightforward. The Vols host LSU next Saturday, then travel to Nashville to face rival Vanderbilt. The writer argues that finishing that stretch undefeated would make them a shoo-in for the playoff, and that if the formula of tough defense and ball control holds, they will be a hard out in December and beyond. Whether MacIntyre is available for those games is the open question.
Citazioni salienti
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.— Fox News analysis
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