If Saturday was Erik Ainge's chance to cement his legacy as a Tennessee Vol, he took full advantage of the opportunity, only not in the way either he or the Vols hoped he would. The senior quarterback never found his rhythm on Saturday afternoon and made two inexcusable throws that helped LSU win its first SEC championship under Les Miles.The game was the tale of two halves as LSU dominated the first part of the game, but still trailed 7-6 at intermission. The Vols dominated the second part of the game, but found themselves on the losing end of a 21-14 final score.
It was an odd afternoon of football in many ways as Tennessee's senior quarterback looked more flustered and confused than the back-up he was facing on the other side. The much-maligned Tennessee defense was physically taking it to an LSU team that had physically dominated teams all year with its giant offensive line and tough-as-nails tailback Jacob Hester. Both surefire kickers looked shaky & missed easy field goals. Down was up. Black was white.
Maybe it was the orange pants.
Last week I called yesterday's game a "defining moment" for Erik Ainge whose career as a Tennessee Vol has been full of highs and lows. Would he be remembered as a one of the greats or remembered as one of the also-rans.
After yesterday, there is no doubt about his Tennessee legacy. After the opening drive of the ballgame, Ainge could not get anything going offensively in the first half. While not taking sacks has been a bright spot of the season, Ainge's inability to stand in the pocket long enough for a receiver to get 10 yards downfield was being exposed by the blitzing, man-to-man coverage attack from the Tigers.
The second half started promising for Ainge and the offense. The Vols opened the half with two solid drives and seemed to have the Bayou Bengals on their heels. Tennessee entered the 4th quarter up a point and poised for its first SEC championship since 1998.
Then, with one throw, everything changed. Just as the television commentators mentioned that the Vols had committed no penalties and no turnovers, Ainge took the cue and threw a Pick-Six to Jonathan Zenon. The senior cornerback sat on the receiver's route and Ainge never should have thrown the ball. It was a deflating blow the Vol cause, but not a dagger in the heart.
Now - the dagger. A huge play to Arian Foster had the Vols inside the red zone, but Ainge failed to notice a giant linebacker standing in front of his intended receiver and threw his second pick of the 4th quarter, ending the Vols chances for the afternoon.
With two throws, Ainge became Casey Clausen instead of Peyton Manning. He had the ballgame and his legacy in the palm of his hand, but could not lead the Vols to a championship. Fair or not, Ainge will forever be known on Rocky Top for his short-comings and failures more than his accomplishments.
4 comments:
I'm sad about the loss, but happy that I found a Vols bar on the upper east side to watch the game at...next year, I guess. It was a pretty disappointing loss, especially since our defense did look so good much of the time. I can't think of one offensive drive on behalf of the Vols that really got me fired up.
Why is it that the announcers always make such a big deal about the uniforms? I've noticed all season that they talk about them A LOT.
I think the map functions you have on here are seriously slowing it down.
I'm glad you mentioned the map functions - I got an email from the developer of them who wanted to use the blog as a "test run" sort of thing. I'm supposed to give her feedback, so I'll let her know you think it is slowing the site down. It might also be the pictures I'm adding.
People really, really don't like UT's white jerseys with orange letters & numbers. I guess they are hard to read from the press box.
Yeah, those map functions have slowed the page down to a crawl.
I LOVE the white on white away uniforms-- not too crazy about the orange on orange.
I'm glad Ainge's tenure is essentially over at UT. I hope we go with Gerald Jones next year. We need some excitement on offense again. Foster and Jones could combine for 3000+ yards rushing next year.
Its definitely the maps, not the pictures, that have slowed the page down, as I loaded the site several times with the pictures before the maps showed up.
I see what you're saying about the Vols uniforms, but I was commenting mainly about how football announcers talk about college football uniforms in general, not just UT uniforms, and they talk about them a lot, as if it is a vital part of the game. At least that's what I've noticed, as a relatively new football fan.
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