RECAP: Vols beat Pittsburgh 34-27 in OT

Tennessee and Pittsburgh combined to play some ugly football Saturday. That usually doesn’t bode well for the Vols, but this time, UT pulled out the 34-27 win.

The Vols started slow — something that’s usually not an issue for Josh Heupel’s Tennessee teams. Hendon Hooker and the offense went three-and-out on the game’s first two drives and then turned it over on downs on its next opportunity, after needing 10 plays to move the ball 36 yards into Pittsburgh’s side of the field. It was an Hooker-to-Tillman miss that killed the drive.

Tennessee trailed 10-7 at the end of the first quarter, and then played its only really “good,” quarter of football of the game. The Vols scored 17 points in the second stanza, to Pittsburgh’s seven, and took a 24-17 lead into halftime.

Unfortunately, Tennessee’s third quarter was worse than it’s first.

The Vols had 29 yards of total offense, two punts, a fumble and a blocked punt all in 15 minutes of football that was excruciatingly hard to watch.

After Jaylen Wright’s fumble, Tennessee’s defense held Pitt to a FG — it was the only one of Pitt’s kicker’s three attempts he made on the day.

Hooker and the offense needed 15 plays to go 41 yards on the following drive and couldn’t score a touchdown. Chase McGrath, a bit surprisingly, nailed a 51-yard attempt, which put the Vols’ lead up to a full seven points at 27-20.

Tennessee’s defense forced a punt on Pitt’s next drive, but Flowers muffed the catch, and the Panthers recovered on the Vols’ 39-yard line.

Pittsburgh’s backup QB, Nick Patti, out there hobbling around on one leg for much of his time on the field, led his offense to two fourth-down conversions, the second of which was a touchdown pass to the back of the endzone that tied the game at 27.

The Vols got the ball back with 2.5-ish minutes left, but the drive fizzled out after Tennessee picked up a couple first downs on short throws and then decided to hand the ball off to Jabari Small on 2nd-and-4. Small was dropped for a one-yard loss, and Pitt wrapped up Hooker on third down before he could make a play and pick up the first down.

The game went to overtime, and a holding call negated an 18-yard TD scoring run by Hooker on the second play of the period. But the very next play, Hooker connected with Tillman for Hooker’s second TD pass of the game. This ended up as the game winner.

Pittsburgh picked up one fourth-down conversion on their OT possession, but a huge sack from Flowers on third and goal backed Pitt up 12 yards. The defense forced an incompletion on fourth down to secure the win for Tennessee.

Neither Hooker nor Tillman had their best game, as Tillman dropped at least two passes, one of which woulda been a touchdown. Hooker missed some throws he usually makes, too. But, in overtime, with the game on the line, it was the Hooker-to-Tillman connection that won the game. Tillman also made this 60-ish yard grab that led to a Vols’ TD in the second quarter.

The Vols got the win — and that’s what’s most important. But Tennessee executed really poorly though most of this contest. That’s a concern moving forward.

All in all, the Vols had two fumbles, one punt return that got fumbled, one punt that got blocked, several dropped passes and had seven penalties for 70 yards. Pitt also held the Vols to just 91 total rushing yards.

On the plus side, the defense was ALL OVER whichever Pittsburgh QB was on the field and got the stop when it mattered most. They hit starter Kedon Slovis enough in the first half that he didn’t play the second half. I don’t know the exact figures, but I heard that the defense forced 15-20 QB hurries and four total sacks.

Tyler Baron’s strip sack in the second quarter was a huge play. I could be missing a game somewhere along the line, but this was the best game I’ve ever seen Baron play during his tenure at Tennessee.

Hooker finished the game 27-42 for 325 yards and two TDs, while Tillman led the team with 162 yards receiving and the game-winning TD catch in OT. USC transfer Bru McCoy had four catches for 58 yards and that touchdown where he was forced out of bounds but came back in bounds to make the score.

Tennessee gets Akron next week before Florida comes to town on the 24th.