Texas won at Neyland Stadium for the first time ever on Saturday, 20 to 17. The quarterback whose name sold the game said afterward that he did not play well, and he was right.
How it nearly went wrong
No. 1 Texas went up ten with 5:41 left and then almost gave it away.
- Tennessee drove the length of the field for a touchdown.
- The Vols recovered the onside kick.
- True freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon found Mike Matthews for a 30-yard touchdown with 1:22 to play.
- Brandon’s Hail Mary as time expired was batted down.
Texas moves to 4-0, 1-0 in the SEC. Tennessee falls to 3-1, 0-1.
Arch Manning at his uncle’s school
The storyline going in was that Manning was playing at Neyland, where Peyton Manning became Peyton Manning.
He started perfectly, completing his first seven passes for 120 yards. He finished 14 of 19 for 201 yards with an interception.
Asked about it on the broadcast afterward, he did not spin it.
I didn’t play very well.
Arch Manning
That is close to an accurate self-assessment. Texas won on defense and on the other team running out of clock.
The other thing in the stadium
President Trump was at the game.
This was the trip CNN was cut from the Air Force One travel pool for, with no outlet assigned in its place. Which means the pool video that normally exists of a president at a public event did not get produced by an independent outlet.
The BeezLoop Take
Texas is 4-0 and the record is the only thing that will survive the season. Nobody remembers in January that a September win was ugly, and a road win in Knoxville against a ranked team is a road win in Knoxville against a ranked team. The Longhorns got it.
What the tape says is a different matter. A number one team that goes up ten with under six minutes left should not surrender a touchdown drive, an onside kick and a second touchdown, and should not need a batted Hail Mary. Special teams and penalties nearly cost Texas a game it had put away. Those are correctable and they are also the things that end seasons in November.
Manning deserves credit for the postgame answer more than criticism for the game. Fourteen of nineteen for 201 with a pick is a middling afternoon, not a disaster, and a 21-year-old carrying the most scrutinized surname in football said plainly that he was bad. Plenty of veterans in that spot talk about winning ugly and move on. He did not.
Tennessee is the team that should feel worse and be encouraged anyway. A true freshman quarterback drove the length of the field against the best defense he will see, hit a 30-yard touchdown with 1:22 left, and got a Hail Mary into the end zone. Faizon Brandon lost, and he found out something about himself that a comfortable win would not have taught him.
The part we keep coming back to is who was not there. A sitting president attended a nationally televised game and the network normally responsible for producing pool video had been pulled off the plane with no replacement named. That is a small consequence of the press fight and it is a real one. The record of a public official at a public event now depends on who the White House decides to let travel.
The question
Is a number one team that nearly blows a ten-point lead in six minutes actually the best team in the country? And how many more trips before somebody notices that nobody independent is filming them?
Elsewhere: the Falcons put 35 on Green Bay Thursday, and why the Packers keep calling the worst play they have.
Sources: ESPN box score · Tennessee Athletics postgame notes · Yahoo Sports · FOX Sports
