Why Tennessee football will 'win on defense' amid offensive struggles

Give Tennessee football's defense an inch and they'll defend it.

Auburn lined up for fourth-and-one from its own 24-yard line with 6:38 to play. The Vols led by three points and were struggling to move the ball efficiently on offense. Instead of punting, Tigers coach Alex Golesh rolled the dice and kept his offense on the field.

Byrum Brown pitched the ball to his left side, where running back Omar Mabson II was met with a wall of Tennessee defenders. Jeremiah Telander and Nathan Robinson swallowed up the ball carrier and turned Auburn over on downs — the deciding play in a 24-14 win on Oct. 3 for the Vols at Neyland Stadium.

It's was yet another stymying performance for a No. 17 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) defense allowing 15 points per game before hitting the road to play Arkansas on Oct. 10 (4:15 p.m. ET, SEC Network).

"We don't need any points from the offense to win the game," defensive back Dejuan Lane said. "We're going to win on defense."

Auburn didn't pick up a first down until its fifth drive of the game in the second quarter, a drive that ended in a fumble. The Tigers' lone first-half touchdown came via a short field when freshman Faizon Brandon threw the first interception of his career to set them up at the Tennessee 19-yard line.

Auburn picked up steam in the second half to finish with 345 yards of offense, 176 yards coming in the fourth quarter. The Tigers still only tallied one more touchdown on a 94-yard scoring drive boosted by a 57-yard rush from Brown.

Tennessee's defense answered the following possession with the turnover on downs.

"A main thing for us is being able to have our presentation perfect so that the quarterback don't know what we doing," said Tevis Metcalf, who had the game-sealing interception on Auburn's final drive. "So, I feel like us being able to take pride in that in fall camp and make sure that we doing exactly what we what coach Knowles asks of us, I feel like when we do it on the field, it just hit different."

How Tennessee's defense has become one of the nation's best

It starts with the competitive makeup, linebacker Arion Carter said.

Tennessee's offense punted on the first four drives of the game. It didn't have a single passing yard until George MacIntyre replace Brandon and delivered a 13-yard pass to Mike Matthews with 2:04 left in the first half.

That didn't matter to the Vols' defense, which had allowed just 86 yards and two first downs to Auburn in the first half.

"We're going to be playing complimentary football, and if that means going to get a takeaway or going and getting a stop, so be it," Carter said. "That's just the way that we play football."

Auburn struggled to come up with bulk explosive plays on coordinator Jim Knowles' defensive unit. It started by making Brown uncomfortable with constant pressure.

Tennessee entered the contest with the most sacks in the country with 19. It added four more on Brown, and corralled the Tigers eight times for a loss. The Vols' defense forced three turnovers on a pair of interceptions by Metcalf and Lane, while Mariyon Dye forced a fumble.

The Tigers' longest passing play went for 16 yards. Through five games, the Vols have only given up five passes of 20-plus yards. Three of them came against the Longhorns a week ago.

Tennessee gave up 44 passes of 20-plus yards a season ago, ranking near the bottom of the conference.

"I think coach Knowles is the head of the snake, but we're the guys in the arena and we're the guys with the mentality," Lane said. "We're the guys putting pad on pad, blood, sweat, and tears into this. So, it definitely starts with coach Knowles, but it ends with us."

Trevor McGee covers the Knoxville Smokies and One Knox SC for Knox News. Email: trevor.mcgee@knoxnews.com; X: @TrevorMcGee12

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee football will 'win on defense' amid offensive struggles