Tennessee starting quarterback Justin Worley watched the waning moments of Saturday’s 59-14 loss at Oregon from the sideline.
After completing 13 of 25 pass attempts for 126 yards — 51 of which came on a throw to wideout Josh Smith on UT’s second drive of the game — Worley was replaced by redshirt freshman Nathan Peterman.
Worley wasn’t pulled as much as he was relieved. Most starters were out of the game in the fourth quarter. The junior led the Vols on a first-quarter scoring drive and a 7-0 lead, but was soon stifled by a disruptive Ducks defense and a slew of UT dropped passes.
“(The Oregon defense) started throwing more at us and they run a very unconventional defense,” said Worley, later adding, “We hit a lull as an offensive unit.”
Peterman completed 2 of 4 passes for 12 yards. He was mostly responsible for handing the ball off on clock-eating run plays. UT coach Butch Jones said he never considered sending either of his true freshmen quarterbacks, Riley Ferguson or Joshua Dobbs, into the game.
Jones said Worley’s performance would be evaluated on film, but laid some blame on his wideouts’ inability to win one-on-one battles against the Oregon secondary.
As for Worley, “I thought I played all right,” the quarterback said. “I took what the defense was giving us, but we needed some more big plays than we generated.”
Smith’s 51-yard reception was Tennessee’s only play over 20 yards.
For the season, Worley is now 35-for-57 on pass attempts (61.4 percent) for 372 yards with five touchdowns and one interception.
Third and Trouble: Much of UT’s undoing during Oregon’s blitz of eight straight touchdown possessions was the Vols’ inability to convert on third down.
All eight of those Oregon possessions stemmed from UT punts. The Vols finished the day 5-for-15 on third down.
“We’ve got to convert third-and-4 and third-and-6, those types of situations,” Worley said. “I don’t know what to tell you for the reason today, us not converting those, but we’ve got to do a better job in the upcoming weeks.”
The Vols were 11-for-21 on third-down conversions entering Saturday.
Thumbs up for Smith: Having missed the season’s opening two games with a broken right thumb, senior defensive end Jacques Smith returned to the Vols’ lineup Saturday.
“(The thumb) felt great and I was so happy to be back out there,” said Smith, who recorded three tackles and one quarterback hurry.
Smith added that the injury had no impact on his performance and “nothing has changed.”
“I knocked my rust off in practice the first couple of days, guys were beating up on me,” Smith said. “When it came to game time I was ready to go.”
Pac 12 Blues: The Vols have now lost five in a row to Pac 12 teams. The most recent are the losses to Oregon on Saturday and in 2010 by a combined 107-27; to UCLA in 2009 and 2008 and to California in 2007. The streak dates to UT’s 35-18 win over Cal in 2006.
New guy: Oregon tight end Johnny Mundt, making his first career start as a freshman tight end, had the most receiving yards by an Oregon tight end (121) since Ed Dickson posted 148 against Cal in 2009. Mundt’s five catches and two touchdowns were all his firsts as a collegian.
Etc.: UT’s touchdown pass from Worley to Jason Croom was the first allowed by Oregon this year. … The crowd of 57,895 was Oregon’s 91st consecutive home sell-out. … Alden Hill scored the first touchdown of his UT career in the fourth quarter with an eight-yard run. … UT’s Vincent Dallas earned his first start as slot receiver due to injuries to Pig Howard and Devrin Young. … Dallas handled kickoff returns for UT and finished the game with 111 kick return yards on five returns. … UT snapped a 12-game win streak in non-conference games. The Vols last loss came to Oregon on Sept. 11, 2010, at Neyland Stadium. … Oregon scored at least eight touchdowns for a third straight week. … Seven different Ducks scored touchdowns.
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