Georgia vs. Tennessee: Game Grades, Analysis for Bulldogs and Vols

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — All week long and for much of the first five weeks of the season, Tennessee fans vocalized their frustrations with the 2-3 Volunteers and their coaches across every form of media.

On Saturday night, that frustration turned to jubilation. 

The entire UT team gathered in front of the "Pride of the Southland" band and fans gathered in the Southeast corner of Neyland Stadium to celebrate a 38-31 come-from-behind win over Georgia that featured a 21-point Tennessee comeback.

UGA quarterback Greyson Lambert's final, fourth-quarter pass into the end zone was swatted away by senior safety Brian Randolph, and UT capitalized on the second-biggest comeback in Neyland history to win. The only time the Vols came back from a bigger scoring deficit was overcoming a 25-point rally against Vanderbilt in 1987. 

For the first time this year, the Vols were on the winning side of a crazy comeback.

"Our hard work has been validated a little bit in terms of finally winning a game like this," UT coach Butch Jones said.

"It's a long season, and it's just one victory, but being down 24-3 against a Top 25 football team, our kids never flinched."

Quarterback Joshua Dobbs was brilliant, accounting for five touchdowns and 430 total yards of offense to help the Vols storm back, and the defense did just enough to keep the Bulldogs a score behind.

Now UGA coach Mark Richt is the coach searching for answers after its second straight setback. Star running back Nick Chubb was injured on a gruesome play on the game's first offensive snap. Therefore, the Dawgs are faced with potential life without their stud workhorse as a result of the injury.

Let's take a look at the game grades for Tennessee and Georgia after the win that may have saved the Vols' season. For the live blog, click here.

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Positional Unit	1st Half Grade	Final Grade
Passing Offense	C-	C+
Rushing Offense	A+	C+
Passing Defense	D	F
Rushing Defense	B+	C-
Special Teams	B-	B-
Coaching	B	D-

Passing Offense

The numbers would have looked a whole lot better had Reggie Davis not dropped Lambert's 56-yard touchdown pass that would have tied the game at 38 in the fourth quarter. The Vols and Dawgs may still be playing. Instead, he dropped it, and UT won. 

"That's the breaks of football," Jones said afterward. "We've had many of those go against us." 

Lambert failed to complete 50 percent of his passes, but he did throw for 279 yards and a couple of touchdowns. Still, the drop was pivotal, and with one final heave into the end zone, Lambert's last-ditch effort was swatted away.

Rushing Offense 

It could have been a crucial blow to Georgia when star running back Nick Chubb went down with what appeared to be a gruesome injury on the first offensive snap of the game. But backup Sony Michel was brilliant with 124 first-half rushing yards. With UGA needing to put the game away in the second half, however, he was held to just 21 yards. The vaunted Bulldogs rushing attack wilted after the break as offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer called just 10 run plays.

Coach Richt expressed optimism regarding Chubb's injury, but he emphasized he wasn't completely certain regarding the extent of the injury, according to Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald:

Passing Defense 

Entering the game, the Vols had the SEC's 11th-best passing offense in the SEC, getting just 192.8 yards through the air per game. There were even the beginnings of rumblings about replacing Dobbs with Quinten Dormady to get the passing game going. There were no issues against UGA, though, as the Vols broke out for 312 passing yards and three touchdowns. To make matters worse for the Dawgs, UT wasn't doing anything dramatic in the passing game, but it worked constantly.

Rushing Defense 

Georgia held Jalen Hurd to just 80 rushing yards, but that wasn't the issue. The Bulldogs couldn't stop Dobbs. The dual-threat quarterback wound up with 118 rushing yards, but, more importantly, he made big play after big play. The Dawgs did stuff him on a 3rd-and-short to get the ball back at the end of the game and give their offense a chance, but that did little to douse the struggles they had throughout the game. Jake Ganus was great against the run, but that's about it.

Special Teams

Davis' 70-yard punt return for a touchdown was a massive play to put Georgia ahead 24-3, but it was sprung by a blatant block in the back that drew a flag but was waived off.

Marshall Morgan missed a 41-yard field goal that wound up being a big play, but the biggest momentum-changer came just before the half. Tennessee's Jakob Johnson hit Michel on a kickoff return, forcing a fumble after UT's touchdown to cut the lead to 24-10. The Vols scored again before the break and turned the game.

"That was a great momentum swing," Hurd said of the two touchdowns in 37 seconds. "It just shows how capable we are of making plays like that."

Coaching 

While Georgia was in position to win the game, there were some serious struggles defensively with Jeremy Pruitt's scheme, and the Vols dissected it. After UGA dominated the first half in the running game, Schottenheimer went away from it.

Now, Richt has swapped places with Jones as the coach who has to answer questions about blowing a huge lead. That's not good news for the Dawgs, who had such high expectations and now sit at 4-2. Richt was outcoached, and he even bristled a bit after the game.

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Positional Unit	1st Half Grade	Final Grade
Passing Offense	B+	A-
Rushing Offense	C-	A
Passing Defense	B	C-
Rushing Defense	D	B-
Special Teams	B	A
Coaching	A-	A

Passing Offense 

A week ago, Tennessee began trying to throw the ball more downfield in what turned out to be an unsuccessful effort against Arkansas. The Vols did it effectively on Saturday. Dobbs was brilliant at times, and he came through with two fourth-down passing conversions right before the end of the first half (including a 39-yard scoring strike to Josh Smith) that seemed to get everybody's confidence going. He set a career high with 312 passing yards, and the receivers were actually threats down the field.

"I felt we had our confidence back and our swagger back for real on the sideline," Smith said. "The receivers came to play, and I'm proud of the plays we made. We came to win."

Rushing Offense

There have been so many times this year when Tennessee and Mike DeBord haven't let Dobbs be Dobbs. Against the Bulldogs, the junior quarterback was allowed to roll the pocket, had designed runs called for him up the middle and performed magic with his legs.

Hurd got the tough yards, and UT outgained the vaunted Dawgs runners 207-165 on the ground. It wasn't a perfect effort, but the Vols did enough to win the game, and a lot of the success came with two freshmen—guard Jack Jones and tackle Chance Hall—who were inserted after injuries.

Passing Defense 

Simply put, Tennessee's secondary is the team's biggest weakness and continues to be. The Vols allowed too many big plays again against the Bulldogs, and UT was constantly beaten in man coverage.

Emmanuel Moseley did some good things, but the sophomore cornerback was scorched a few different times, and on the play where Davis dropped the 56-yard touchdown pass, he had three steps on the defender, and UT got lucky. The Vols did make a big play at the end of the game when Randolph batted the would-be game-tying touchdown away.

Rushing Defense 

Tennessee got better against the run as the game went on, determined to not let Michel beat the Vols with his feet. They put the ball in Lambert's hands, and though the fifth-year senior transfer made several plays, he didn't make enough. With the game on the line in the second half, UGA had just 28 rushing yards. It helped the Vols that Chubb wasn't out there, but the Dawgs still have talented runners who couldn't do much as UT was making its comeback.

"It didn’t change us where we just had to throw it out, throw out the game plan," Richt said of the mindset after Chubb's injury. " We still pretty much ran the things we practiced."

Special Teams

Anytime you allow a punt return for a touchdown, it can't be a great score, but Tennessee again was very good on special teams for the most part. Johnson's forced fumble at the end of the first half was the game's biggest play after it was parlayed into a touchdown to help cut the UGA lead to seven.

Cameron Sutton and Evan Berry continue to be forces in the return game. Then, when UT absolutely needed a big play from punter Trevor Daniel to pin Georgia deep, he hit a perfect ball that bounced sideways and out of bounds at the 1-yard line to make the Dawgs have to go 99 yards for a game-tying touchdown.

Asked if that was the best punt of his career, Daniel smiled, "Yes," he said. "By far."

Coaching 

For all the heat Tennessee's coaching staff has taken this year, Saturday night was a clutch win and well-coached throughout. Jones recognized his team's desperate need for a touchdown when it was down 24-3, so he went for it on fourth down twice, and the Vols made both.

He and DeBord stayed aggressive for the most part, and they threw downfield more in what felt like a much more balanced offensive attack. Though the defense continued to struggle, coordinator John Jancek dialed up more pressure throughout the night, and it visibly rattled Lambert at times.

Even when Jones could have gone for it at the end of the game and salted the win away with a six-inch sneak from Dobbs, he called for a punt, and Daniel made him look good with a perfect one. 

"It was huge," senior tackle Kyler Kerbyson said of the win. "We were having a lot of outside distractions, and people were, you know, saying, 'We’re done with the season.' I saw stuff, people saying, 'Oh, well, two more losses in a row,' and that's disheartening to see from fans to not support us. But, I mean, we answered. We were able to show that we’re a really good football team.

"I try to not let anything get to me, but all I really wanted was to win this game for all my teammates. I mean, that was…that was the main point, was to win for those guys, not anybody else."

Everything went Tennessee's way with the game on the line. This was the best game UT has coached all season, and it was rewarded with a win.

All stats gathered from UTSports.com unless otherwise noted. All quotes gathered firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee lead writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.