UT 33 MSU 21

Well, another good effort but not enough to get the job done. Yet again I did not get to see the game but a few things were obvious from simply following on the radio and looking at the box score. First of all, this game was lost on the line of scrimmage. The MSU defensive line never got any pressure on Ainge and consequently he burned the secondary to the tune of 260 yards and 2TDs. That really wasn't all that unexpected. What really hurt was on top of that the D-line was unable to even slow down the Tenn. ground game. Arian Foster racked up 139 yards and a TD while Montario Hardesty got 78 yards on the ground. That was surprising, at least to me. I wasn't expecting the defense to give up over 200 yards on the ground. Basically Tennessee's offensive line took the Bulldog D-line completely out of the game. That is all there is to it. Seems simple I know but thats really the beginning and ending of the story

One big positive is that MSU finally found some semblance of a passing game. Carroll was 18/33, throwing for 203 yards and 2TD with 0 INT. Not Heisman numbers to be sure, but more than enough to keep the defense guessing, which is all I've been looking for. I wish I could've seen the game to see how Carroll looked. Oh well, thats the way the cookie crumbles. Promising numbers though which I hope bodes well for the future. A couple of observations from the last 2 games.

-Eric Hoskins has apparently taken the starting FB job. I'm pretty sure he is a walk-on but I could be mistaken. From what I've heard he has been quite impressive. I'm glad to see someone has finally stepped up. I never liked what I saw of Jeremy Jones. For being 270 lbs he sure was tentative. He never seemed to explode into his blocks, instead choosing to pull up just before contact. Your 270, run over those defenders.

-Marcus Washington got burned time and again on Saturday. He eventually got pulled in favor of Jasper O'Quinn who came up with a big interception in the 2nd half. In might have just been one game but O'Quinn might be close to taking the 2nd CB spot.

-Remember when I was praising Ellis Johnson a few weeks back? Well, maybe I was a bit too hasty. The D has been burned extra crispy against S. Carolina and Tennessee. I'm not horribly concerned yet but some adjustments probably need to be made.

-What has happened to Christian Ducre? He was really coming on strong but has been invisible in both the UAB game and on Saturday. If I remember correctly he only got a single carry against Tennessee.

I'm not all that upset by the loss actually. It seemed like MSU played a pretty good game but simply didn't have the horses to keep up. Surprisingly enough, the offense actually did well enough to keep MSU in the game, but the defense couldn't hold UT down. A complete reversal of what we're accustomed to seeing. Anyways, now we're down to 5 games to get 2 more wins.