Tennessee 45, Vanderbilt 21: This was a football game that happened

Yeah, this one was this close to being completely out of hand from the jump: Vanderbilt’s first drive was promising, until Mike Wright threw a pick six; then, after a quick three and out, a Tennessee punt return gave the Vols the ball at the Vanderbilt 21 and gave them a chance for a quick kill. Instead, a fourth-down stand spared the Commodores the execution chamber, but another promising drive stalled after a false start penalty.

The numbers, of course, look like complete domination by Tennessee, and that’s pretty much what happened; Vanderbilt mostly kept the final score from getting completely out of hand by basically playing keep-away in the second half, going on scoring drives of 13 and 20 plays. Clark Lea was once again extremely aggressive (and successful) on fourth down, going 5-for-7; Vanderbilt had more fourth-down attempts than punts, which is a good sign. That said, I’ll be curious to see if this keeps up next season; sure, Lea has been very aggressive over the last few games, but it’s easy to be aggressive when you have nothing to lose — a team that’s already out of bowl contention playing three games where they’re a heavy underdog. It’s a completely different thing to be aggressive when you’re weirdly bogged down in a close game against Northern Illinois — or, hell, an SEC game.

Anyway, I don’t really have a whole lot else to say about this. This was a rough game at the end of a rough season and I’m just gonna give you the stats without a ton of commentary. Let’s move into the offseason, folks.