COLUMBIA, SC — Quarterback George MacIntyre was the nexus for almost everything that went wrong for Tennessee football in a gut-wrenching, field-storming 27-24 loss to South Carolina.
He certainly didn’t make every critical mistake. In fact, the UT quarterback only made a few of the countless errors committed by the 11th-ranked Vols (6-2, 3-2 SEC) in throwing away a very winnable game to South Carolina (4-3, 2-3) on Oct. 24.
But MacIntyre’s proximity to the gaffes – and his part in the last ones – made him the best person to summarize how the Vols crumbled down the stretch.
“I know in every game that every coach and player says, ‘They didn’t stop us. We stopped ourselves.’ But I felt like that was very true for this game,” said MacIntyre, a sophomore and former Brentwood Academy standout.
“It was one of the most frustrating games I’ve ever played in.”
MacIntyre tossed three touchdown passes that were negated by penalties and looked visibly frustrated each time that points were taken off the board. Those were part of 12 penalties for 90 yards that kept the Vols from pulling away.
“Penalties just crushed us,” coach Josh Heupel said.
MacIntyre also appeared to botch a fourth-and-1 play that could’ve helped ice the game for the Vols late in the fourth quarter. MacIntyre lying on the grass after that play provided the visual representation of another failed trip to Williams-Brice Stadium, where UT has lost seven of its last nine games to the Gamecocks.
And when UT tried to set up its own game-winning field goal, MacIntyre was sacked and lost a fumble, which South Carolina recovered with 33 seconds remaining. The Gamecocks converted it into Malik Orsan’s 48-yard game-winning field goal.
What went wrong on Tennessee's failed fourth-and-1 play
Tennessee led 24-17 with 3:35 remaining when it failed on a fourth-and-1 play. MacIntyre faked a handoff to fullback DaSaahn Brame. He then turned to the outside, where running back Javin Gordon flared out for a pitch. Nothing was there, and MacIntyre was quickly tackled behind the line of scrimmage.
MacIntyre was apparently supposed to hand the ball to Brame, who easily cleared the first-down marker without the ball.
Heupel said the play failed because of “missteps by George,” and MacIntyre seemed to confirm that.
“There are a lot of moving parts to the play with kills and checks and what (defensive) fronts they’re going to run. But, yeah, it would’ve been similar to DaSaahn’s touchdown in the first half,” said MacIntyre, referring to Brame’s 1-yard TD run on the same play in the second quarter.
“(The failed fourth-down play) was a simple miscommunication. It was a formation we had been running all game. Got to be more locked into the details of the different plays in that big jumbo formation.”
Heupel said he opted to go for the first down because he liked his play call and the Vols were 3-for-3 on fourth-down plays to that point in the game. It would’ve been at least a 55-yard field goal attempt.
What went wrong on George MacIntyre's fumble that led to loss
MacIntyre’s fumble that set up South Carolina’s game-winning field goal proved just as costly. With 33 seconds remaining, the Vols needed to gain at least 25 yards to get into Cooper Ranvier’s field-goal range for a potential game-winning kick.
On first-and-10, both UT offensive tackles were beaten by edge rushers on a pass play. Anthony Addison executed a swim move to slide past left tackle David Sanders. And Dylan Stewart successfully bull-rushed right tackle Jesse Perry. They met at MacIntyre, who was sandwiched on the strip sack.
MacIntyre admittedly didn’t know what went wrong on that play immediately after the game. But he said he thought a receiver was breaking open when the pass rush quickly reached him.
“I haven’t seen it on film yet. Obviously, the pressure came from the right. In the moment, I thought I saw a receiver coming open over the middle. We’ll watch the tape and see how true that was,” said MacIntyre, who was 16-of-23 passing for 136 yards.
“We hit a similar play to Mike (Matthews) on a two-minute drill (on a touchdown drive) heading into halftime. I got a very similar look from the defense, but we’ve got to execute better as an offense.”
Tennessee must execute a lot of things better when it plays No. 12 Kentucky on Nov. 7 (time TBD) at Neyland Stadium following an off week. One more loss likely kicks the Vols out of the College Football Playoff picture with four regular-season games remaining.
“Everybody’s got to take ownership,” Heupel said. “We’re in this thing together.”
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing atknoxnews.com/subscribe.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Tennessee botched fourth down, George MacIntyre fumble vs South Carolina