Tennessee coach Derek Dooley talks to his team on the sidelines during the first half of Saturday's game against Georgia at Neyland Satdium.KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee defensive lineman Daniel Hood was in no mood to praise himself or his teammates after the Volunteers' 20-12 loss to Georgia on Saturday night.
"They started out 3-for-3 on fourth-down conversions," he said. "That's embarrassing."
The stats from the Vols' second Southeastern Conference loss in as many games weren't embarrassing.
UT surrendered two field goals and two touchdowns against a team that hadn't been held to that few in its earlier victories over Ole Miss and Mississippi State, or in its only league loss to South Carolina.
The Vols gave the Bulldogs 139 rushing yards, 227 passing yards, 20 first downs, a long run of 21 and a long pass of 71.
Even UT coach Derek Dooley said, "We did a good job against the running back [Isaiah Crowell]. He averaged 3 yards a carry. We gave up one big play -- shouldn't have given it up -- but that was a positive. [But] they get first downs and then you get bad field position."
Then again, this is a defense that holds itself to high enough standards that senior linebacker Austin Johnson said, "The goal is to have a shutout every game."
The problem for the Big Orange defenders against Georgia was that for the first time all season they faced a quarterback in Aaron Murray who could both run and throw with equal ability.
"He's got a great arm," Hood said. "He gets it out fast, but he's also good at finding holes he can run through. It's tough trying to defend both those things and he split us a couple of times running the ball.
Murray did make a few big plays, especially a 71-yard non-scoring pass to Malcolm Mitchell.
"We've got them down on the [UGA] 7," Dooley said. "And they throw the ball over our head. That's a huge play. You're playing field position. It's still a one-score game (13-6). Everything changed after that."
Indeed, two plays later, Crowell went in from 17 yards out, the lead swelled to 20-6 and a certain hopelessness seemed to engulf the Vols.
"You could see it in their eyes," Dooley said.
Unfortunately for the Big Orange Nation, Hood says the players' eyes see more of this, only worse, on the horizon.
"This isn't going to be the toughest [game we have left]," he said. "Schematically, they're not as advanced as LSU (this week) or Alabama (Oct. 22)."