Acy's pick keys second half slaughter
KNOXVILLE--From 2009 to 2017, Missouri's defense never had fewer than 16 takeaways in a season. But through this year's first ten games, the Tigers had forced just nine turnovers. Even as the defense has played better over the second half of the season, it hasn't been able to get the ball away from opposing offenses very much.
Coming into Saturday's game in Knoxville, Tennessee had just 12 turnovers all season, six of which had come in one game. Missouri's takeaway rate was 121st in the country. If there was reason to fear a Volunteer upset, those numbers were a big factor.
Enter DeMarkus Acy.
With Missouri holding a 19-10 lead that should have been much bigger, Tennessee had driven to the Missouri 28. Backup quarterback Keller Chryst looked to the left side and fired a pass. He threw the ball outside while Marquez Callaway ran a deeper route to the end zone.
"The whole week has just been watching film and seeing the different hand signals the quarterback does," Acy said. "In this particular situation he did low hand signal below the waist, signaling probably a fade. I basically just corrected to it and saw the ball."
As Callaway continued toward the end zone, Acy broke off his coverage and intercepted the ball at the 13-yard line. A 76-yard return put the Tiger offense in business and they would cash in three plays later on a three-yard touchdown pass from Drew Lock to Johnathon Johnson. What could have been a one-score game suddenly went to halftime with the Tigers leading 26-10.
"That’s huge. That swings it," linebacker Cale Garrett said. "We had just scored and they’re driving down looking like they’re going to get some sort of points and then him being able to do that and take it all the way back for our offense was awesome. He did most of the heavy lifting for them."
Acy was a pre-season third-team all-SEC selection and has been the Tigers' top cornerback most of the season. He leads the team with nine pass breakups and three interceptions and is playing the best football of his career down the stretch.
“Tonight he just really stepped up," defensive tackle Terry Beckner Jr. said. "By far this is his best game of the season. It’s a real big game for him.”
Both Acy and his coach attribute his improvement to his work ethic between Saturdays.
"His practice habits have really improved as well and his understanding of not trying to do too much on one play," Barry Odom said. "He made some huge plays. He understood in positions where he was and almost more importantly than that on route recognition because of formation."
"I’ve been having more emphasis on getting the ball," Acy said. "Last year I feel like I was aggressive getting a lot of tackles, but not really getting the ball. This year every week I’m trying to get better and focus on getting the ball and making big plays for my team.
Missouri's pass defense has been much maligned most of the season, and for good reason. But led by Acy, the Tigers held Tennessee quarterbacks to a 7-for-21, 173-yard performance with 98 of the yards coming on jump balls to Callaway. No play was bigger than Acy's momentum changing second quarter pick.
"That’s huge. That’s something that we needed," offensive tackle Paul Adams said. "Just having that kind of momentum going into half it kind of just set up the rest of the time."
The only thing Acy didn't do? Score. He was shoved out at the 11 on his first interception and then stopped inside the ten on his fourth quarter interception, though the return would have been nullified by a targeting penalty on Nate Anderson anyway.
"Unfortunately I got caught on both of them, but we’re not gonna speak on that," Acy said. "Terez (Hall), he tried his best to block, but we’ll speak on that when we watch film.”
Acy didn't get his touchdown, but sophomore safety Joshuah Bledsoe picked up the slack.
With 9:15 left in the third quarter and the game still in reach for the Volunteers at 33-17, Nate Anderson swatted the ball from the grasp of Carlin Fils-Aime. Bledsoe knelt on the turf, but picked his knee off the ground just before picking the ball up. He ran 39 yards for the touchdown that effectively ended Tennessee's chances at a comeback.
“Once the ball hit the ground, I was like, 'oh, ball!'" Bledsoe said. "So I immediately jumped down and then I was like, 'hold on, I can score this.' So I made sure I wasn’t touching the ball while I was down, and I just picked it up and started running.”
With that score, Missouri put the rest of the game on its running attack. The Volunteers would not score for the final 27 minutes, 44 seconds and the final margin was identical to the 2017 game that cost Butch Jones his job the next day.
"Our defense has kept us in a lot of games," freshman receiver Dominic Gicinto said. "To see them do it again it wasn’t really surprising."
Maybe not surprising to the players, but for a defense that has spent much of the season as Missouri's designated punching bag, Saturday's dominant performance was certainly a welcome sight. It was the third time in four games the Tigers have held the opposition to 17 points or fewer and the fifth time in six they've given up less than the opposition's season average.
"We’ve had more guys watching film as the weeks have accumulated than we did in the weeks prior," Garrett said. "People are starting to invest a lot more in the mental side of the game which is awesome. This is when you need to be playing your best ball."
And that's exactly what Missouri is doing in November.