Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 11/12/16. Tennessee's Rashaan Gaulden (7) latches onto Kentucky quarterback Stephen Johnson (15) during the fourth quarter of play. The Tennessee Volunteers won over the Kentucky Wildcats with a final score of 49-36 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday, November 12, 2016. KNOXVILLE - Bob Shoop knows the numbers for his Tennessee defense against Kentucky weren't pretty.
The defensive coordinator also knows his unit did enough to help the Volunteers win the game.
Last Saturday, Tennessee became the first team in college football this season to win despite allowing more than 400 rushing yards as the Wildcats rolled up 443 yards on the ground - the third-most ever allowed by the Vols, behind only Alabama (457) in 1986 and Auburn (444) in 2013
"You can't give up two 70-plus-yard runs and expect your run defensive statistics to look good," Shoop said Monday. "We did what we had to win the game. We need to fit things up better. We need to tackle better.
"There's three levels of defense. The first level, which is D-linemen, if a ball makes 3 or 4 yards, the only people that know right away are the coaches and the kid's parents. The second level of the defense is the linebackers. If they miss a tackle, there's a safety or a corner to back them up.
"What's happening right now is our guys on the third level, the corners aren't leveraging the ball and keeping it front and inside, and our safeties aren't getting the ball carrier to the ground, and that's where your big plays come from."
Quarterback Stephen Johnson's 75-yard run on the first play of the game, when nickel cornerback Rashaan Gaulden missed his assignment and linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. and safety Todd Kelly Jr. thought the running back had the ball, set the tone for a long day for Tennessee's defense.
The Vols allowed 14 plays of 10-plus yards, including Jojo Kemp's 71-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
The second 400-yard rushing performance in four games by an opponent - Alabama had 409 - dropped Tennessee to 11th in the SEC and 102nd nationally in rushing defense. In the SEC only Arkansas and Ole Miss have allowed more runs of 40-plus yards than the Vols. Tennessee's six runs allowed of 60-plus yards are tied for the most in the nation.
"You can't have a dumb mistake on the first play of the game," Shoop said, "and let the quarterback run 70 yards. If it were one thing, I could eliminate that one thing. It's Rashaan Gaulden not taking the quarterback on the zone read on that play. It's Cortez McDowell and Stephen Griffin misfitting a power on another play. It's a missed tackle on another play.
"It's just consistency. I understand the frustration. I always say winning minimizes the problems and losing magnifies the problems. They exist, and we've got to make the corrections from last week so they don't happen again this week (against Missouri), because we're facing another really good explosive offense."
Like any coordinator, Shoop is trying to focus on the positives with his unit.
In the last three games, Tennessee's injury-ravaged defense recorded 14 sacks, 32 tackles for loss and 13 passes broken up.
Tennessee beat Kentucky in part because its defense held the Wildcats to field goals on three red-zone trips and forced a fumble on another. After Griffin's forced turnover, the Vols came up with back-to-back three-and-out stops. The second followed a turnover on special teams.
The Vols, who led 35-16 after three quarters, allowed 203 total yards and 161 rushing yards in the final period of the game.
Shoop believes the Vols' aren't being physical enough "at the point of attack" or "setting an edge" and acknowledged it's difficult to improve a defense's physical play during the season, when limiting the wear and tear on players and implementing game plans are the focus during practice.
"The Achilles' heel, when we look at in the offseason and when we look at each week, has been the big plays," Shoop said. "I keep saying, it's not big plays, it's monstrous plays. Everybody gives up a run of 15 to 20 yards. Everybody gives up a pass of 25 to 30 yards. You're not going to have good run statistics when you give up two runs over 70 yards in a single game.
"It's not just us. Ole Miss has had some of those same problems. Arkansas - Robb Smith's a good friend - week in and week out they're either playing lights out against Florida or giving up a 90-yard run against someone else. We've talked about ways to battle those issues. Trust me, the defensive coordinator club, we talk every week about how to fix these problems.
"We're working to do it, I promise."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.