B Patrick Brown goal 247 here at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte North Carolina where Tennessee beats NC State 51-10 and uh the Turning Point Mr Brown there there were a lot of offensive points obviously uh the defense did not give up an offensive touchdown has not given up an offensive touchdown at all this season and the turning point in this football game came from that Tennessee defense when uh walk- on red shirt senior safety will Brooks picks off a pass that Joshua Joseph's helped on by forcing Grayson Mcall to to lob it over him and and just could not throw it with enough accuracy and will Brooks picks it off and runs it back 85 yards for a touchdown and the the the race was on from there for Tennessee yeah been that it looked for offensive purposes like it was about to be 1010 at that point NC State had a hit a big play with a little bit of a gadget where they lined up half their offensive line out wide and they hit a couple of nice runs the only really good runs they had in the entire game but then that was such a momentum changing play tenness is able to tack on a field goal right before half time and then come out in the second half and and with a kind of a Kill Shot drive there uh to open the second half and you look up and it goes from almost being 1010 to 273 and that was pretty much all she wrote yeah it absolutely was and uh a big reason why it was all she road is because of the play of the line of scrimmage for Tennessee and the trenches both sides of the football we'll talk about the offense here in a moment but defensively Tennessee's defensive front just absolutely wrecked shop and and owned NC State in the trenches yeah been it's early in the season we're still finding some things out but you know we've heard all offseason how good this Tennessee defensive line is they lived up to that billing we talked all week about NC State struggling against Western Carolina blocking them up front last week those things played out tonight in this game I think Tennesse end up with I think 13 tackles for loss by 16 different guys I think NC State was under 50 yards rushing I think their top running back was like four carry seven carries for minus four yards when you make when you make teams onedimensional it's it's really hard to get going as an offense and then this CC State offense just you know they never looked comfortable after about the first quarter uh and I I don't know what they did up on third down they got their first three I don't think they got one the rest of the game and we talked about that coming in the game too as a big as a big point for Tennessee that they need to get field on the defense they did got a defensive touchdown defensive fine dominated tackles for loss uh this could be it's looking like it could be the best defense of Tennessee's had on Josh Hy by for sure yeah and and coming out of this game you watch that defensive performance and then you watch the offense that scored what 44 points without the pick six I believe and those 44 points was despite them not playing their best football I didn't watch that game and think that the offense played their best football I thought they played well Nico was fine Dylan Sanson had a great game the line of scrimmage won the game that they had to settle for a lot I feel like because of what NC State was giving them defensively uh and I asked Dylan Samson just a moment ago how what does that mean going forward and he said we we left a lot of points out there we could have scored 60 or 709 if we wanted to or if if we would have finish some drives rather than settle in for some field goals yeah Nico missed a couple throws there was a long way down to brew in the first half red zone third down to squirrel where he was open against the safety and just missed him a little bit Nico said he played okay he was all right you you you like to see that he threw that interception which he said he forced comes out his next throw and hits squirrel wide on a on a downfield shot just dropped it in the bucket yeah so that that shows you a little bit about his mindset in his confidence and uh yeah I mean it felt like Tennessee's offense didn't really get out of third gear maybe you know they ended up with 460 yards and bit 44 points and um that that's just kind of how they are I mean they don't have to always be maybe the 2000 2022 team spoiled us that it was just like hard it's just like rock and roll all the time and This Crew still productive but maybe not as rock and roll yeah and I again I thought Nico played well second interception not really his fault protection yeah the stat Line's going to look in that regard worse than that 50 the bomb to kitl in on a scramble drill might have been his best play of the night gets called back kind of go sometimes yeah so Nico played well but there's no doubt the running game was the most impressive Nico with his legs very impressive had a big 31 yard touchdown uh towards the end of his performance uh but Dylan Samson Big Knight as we mentioned but then deshun Bishop forced into action as that running back number two cam Selden out with a a separate injury than his shoulder that he dealt with over the off season uh the running game was terrific tonight yeah tight end played a huge role in this game then we saw Tennessee in 12 personnel which is two tight ends more than any game they've been in and maybe more than they played in a long time and you know they they touted those guys at Trio all season with kelman Holden stays who caught a touchdown Ethan Davis uh those guys were vital um and we talked H him and he said that the staff said hey you're going to have to Cowboy Up and block a lot in this game but yet they still found a way to get those two guys in the end zone and that's three of nio touchdowns now have gone to tight ends so they've been a big part of this offense they were a big part of the running game tonight I think he end up about 250 yards Samson had another 100 yard game he's got three starts three or 100 yard games going back to the Cal Bowl so uh the Run game continues to carry the mail for for this offense and uh if they're able to do that and it just gets really really hard to stop them absolutely big win for Tennessee tonight 51-10 over NC State an impressive win uh and one that I think you should feel good about if you're Tennessee fan because obviously the score was what it was against the good opponent away from nean Stadium but then you look around college football is a very weird day so a very nice win for Tennessee show of force and I kind of think it was a statement win today well you get to this point of the season and you can count on maybe two hands the number of teams that have had eye opening wins and I think this one goes down as an opening good for Tennessee for sure absolutely we've got all the coverage of it at goal 247.com he's Patrick Brown I'm B mcke