A breakdown of what went right, what went wrong and more for Vanderbilt's defense against Tennessee.
What went right
Vanderbilt had what seemed to be the healthiest defense on the field that it has since week zero.
It has had CJ Taylor, De'Rickey Wright, Jaylen Mahoney, Martel Hight, Kane Patterson, Darren Agu and others out of multiple games due to injury. On Saturday it had every starter except for Yilanan Ouattara. That's a positive in itself, although Taylor did leave the game.
Langston Patterson also continued his step forward with a performance in which he recorded eight tackles and recovered a fumble.
What went wrong
Vanderbilt couldn't do much of anything to stop Tennessee's passing game.
Veteran quarterback Joe Milton, who has struggled for a few weeks on end, was just 35 passing yards short of his season high at halftime of Saturday's game. The Volunteers also had 347 yards of total offense at the break.
A misplay on the backend found Vanderbilt with its back against the wall early, that seemed to be a trend. In total Josh Heupel's team recorded 15 "big" plays.
It felt like the Commodores needed to force turnovers to negate those big plays and their impact. They had two opportunities in the first half that were both overturned, though. Tennessee didn't chart an actual turnover until the early fourth quarter when it muffed a punt that Langston Patterson picked up.
The Commodores were outgained 617 to 306 and Tennessee subbed in its freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava the possession after Patterson's fumble recovery.
Vanderbilt's defense is ranked among the worst power five defenses in the country and didn't look significantly better than that on Saturday.
Grade: F
Vanderbilt's defense got a few stops early but didn't give it a chance to win this one. It has playmakers but wasn't consistently good as a whole all season.
Defensive MVP: Langston Patterson
Patterson led the team in tackles, again. The star linebacker also picked up a fumble. Patterson is a player that Vanderbilt can build around next season.
