The Missouri Tigers will travel to Knoxville this Saturday to play Tennessee, with the opportunity to make it to the SEC Championship for the second straight year. Since Georgia unexpectedly beat Auburn last weekend, Missouri will have to win its remaining two in-conference games against Tennessee and Vanderbilt to make it to Atlanta.
Tennessee has played in some battles the last few weeks and have improved tremendously. Last week, they put up 50 points on a much improved Kentucky team and have a lot on the line this week against Missouri.
Missouri has the SEC Championship on the line, but Tennessee would gain respect from the SEC East, and also bowl eligibility with this win at home. The Vols are exceptionally better at home and the battle will go down under the lights at Neyland Stadium.
The Tigers are 8-2 on the season and 5-1 in the SEC East, with one loss coming against Indiana and the other, a shutout loss at home at the hands of Georgia. Missouri can get their revenge against the Bulldogs by beating Tennessee and Vanderbilt, and taking the SEC East’s spot in the SEC Championship game.
One thing that this game will definitely bring is excitement on defense. Missouri’s Shane Ray is leading the SEC in sacks, and Tennessee’s Derek Barnett and Curt Maggitt hold the number three and four spots in that same category.
Keys to a Tennessee Victory
Tennessee has played some of their best games at home this season. They have put up 169 points total at home this season, compared to just 87 points on the road. One of the biggest motivators for this team is going to be upsetting Missouri’s chances of making it to the SEC Championship, and with the way they have been playing, it is definitely possible.
Tennessee’s offense has absolutely been rolling lately, posting huge wins in their last two games. The Vols will need to continue rolling if they want a shot at defeating Missouri. The Tigers’ defense has one “not so secret” weapon, and that is defensive end Shane Ray. If they can adjust and make sure he doesn’t get close to Joshua Dobbs, they should be in a position to win. Dobbs, who took over for Worley under center for the Vols, will make his second start and has definitely been the “game changer” for Tennessee’s offense.
Dobbs racked up 345 total yards and four touchdowns against Kentucky and has the ability to make plays down field, something that Worley struggled with. This offense has improved in a lot of areas with Dobbs starting, and they have been able to make big plays when they desperately needed to under his guidance.
The defense, a place where Tennessee has found success, took a blow this week when news surfaced of A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams’ involvement in a sexual assault investigation. Tennessee announced Monday that they would be suspended for Saturday’s game. With that said, Tennessee will be missing two of their biggest defensive leaders.
In addition to Johnson and Williams being out, junior safety Brian Randolph will be serving a half game suspension for targeting against Kentucky. With these holes to fill on defense, Tennessee looks to true freshman middle linebacker Jakob Johnson to fill in for A.J. Johnson. The secondary will also be hurting, with two likely spots to fill at strong safety and corner.
Defensive coordinator, John Jancek had this to say about true freshman Jakob Johnson as told to UTsports.com:
“It’s a badge of honor to be a middle linebacker. Jakob has to do it. He’s put the time in. He has worked extremely hard. I know he has been up early in the morning looking at film. We’ve challenged him to do so and he has responded well so far.”
Keys to a Missouri Victory:
Missouri, who represented the East in last year’s SEC Championship, has that same opportunity to lose on Saturday in Knoxville. The Tigers have leaders in almost every category in the SEC, most notably the aforementioned defensive end Shane Ray (who leads with the most sacks). They also have a solid offense, one that allowed them to produce a season high 587 yards on offense last week against Texas A&M.
One thing that the Tigers have on the Vols, is that they are in familiar territory. In 2013, Missouri had to win their last four games to secure the top spot in the East and they succeeded, which ironically was tipped off with beating Tennessee in the first of those four games.
For Missouri’s offense, it all starts with quarterback Maty Mauk. Mauk, who threw eight interceptions in the first six games, has only thrown two in the last four games. However, Mauk has only completed one touchdown pass in the three SEC road games he’s played in this season. Mauk is going to have to step up on the road in order to beat Tennessee.
He will need help from players like running back Russell Hansbrough, who has nine rushing touchdowns this season. Hansbrough has the opportunity to take advantage of the inexperienced defensive players that will be playing due to suspensions.
On Defense, Missouri’s Shane Ray will be the difference maker here. This guy is an absolute animal and analysts have even said he could be a Top-10 draft pick. Ray has the ability to come up with huge stops, and is one of the best at applying pressure to the opposing quarterback.
Aside from Ray, Missouri’s defense as a whole averages a SEC-low of 4.0 yards per carry and only allows an average of 299.6 yards per game. It also seems that senior strong safety Braylon Webb has a “quiet” impact on Missouri’s defense, or at least his teammates think so. Sophomore linebacker Michael Scherer had this to say to KansasCity.com about Webb:
“He’s a quiet genius,” Scherer said. “When you look at his grade after the game, you’re just shocked, because he hardly ever does anything wrong. I don’t think he’s graded lower than a 95 percent this whole year. Ninety-five percent, if that was me it would be the best game of my life, so he doesn’t mess up, he’s there all the time and he makes plays when they come to him.”
Webb has started in 35 consecutive games but will sit the first half due to a suspension for targeting, which could lead to success for Tennessee’s offense.
This match up is definitely the highlight of the weekend for SEC play and will bring excitement due to the fact that there is so much on the line for both teams. Missouri will be fighting for a chance to win the East and Tennessee is vying for respect in the SEC.
Fun Fact: The last time Missouri traveled to Neyland Stadium in their inaugural season in the SEC (2012), they defeated Tennessee 51-48 in four overtimes.
Everything You Need to Know:
When: Saturday, November 22
Time: 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN
Where: Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee
Spread: Tennessee -3.5 (Oddshark.com)
*Section Photo and Featured Photo (above) credit to Kyle Rivas, Getty Images.
