Tennessee's Ground Game Rolls Past Georgia Tech

Tennessee's offensive line spent Saturday night in Atlanta wearing down Georgia Tech snap after snap in front of 52,113 fans, until the Yellow Jackets had nothing left to stop DeSean Bishop.

No. 18 Tennessee beat Georgia Tech 45-24 at Bobby Dodd Stadium, and for a quarter it did not look that lopsided. Faizon Brandon hit Ethan Davis for a 25-yard touchdown to open the scoring. Georgia Tech answered with a field goal, then blocked a Jackson Ross punt and Elgin Sessions returned it for a touchdown of his own. The Yellow Jackets led 10-7 after one quarter.

Tennessee tied it on a field goal early in the second quarter, then pulled away for good. Safety Dejuan Lane read a bubble screen from Georgia Tech quarterback Alberto Mendoza, picked it off and ran it back 41 yards for a touchdown. Brandon answered right back, finding Braylon Staley for another score before halftime. Tennessee led 24-10 at the break. Georgia Tech got no closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

The trenches did the rest. Bishop carried it 20 times for 147 yards and two touchdowns, better than seven yards a carry, breaking tackles that Georgia Tech's stacked boxes could not stop. Tennessee ran for 299 yards as a team, the physical, line-of-scrimmage football the site's preview Friday said would decide this game.

Brandon made his first true road start and did not need to be spectacular. He completed 10 of 21 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns, to Davis and Staley, without turning the ball over, and added 22 yards on five carries of his own. It was a solid line, not a dazzling one. That was the idea for a freshman on the road.

Josh Heupel liked what he saw from his freshman quarterback. "I thought he was composed," Heupel said afterward. "He handled situational football pretty well."

Tennessee's defense forced two turnovers, including Lane's pick-six, and did not commit one of its own. Georgia Tech's Justice Haynes fought for 117 total yards and two touchdowns trying to keep pace, but Tennessee finished with 447 total yards to Georgia Tech's 356.

Georgia Tech coach Brent Key had already said the hard part out loud. Days after the season-opening loss to Colorado, he told reporters, "We look as if we were a poorly prepared, poorly coached, poor disciplined, soft football team." Saturday did not argue the point.

Tennessee is 2-0. Georgia Tech is 0-2, its front beaten up for a second straight week after the season-opening loss to Colorado, with questions to answer before ACC play starts.

Heupel's read on his own offensive line said enough. "It's hard to rush for 300 yards," he said. "I was proud of those guys."