Don’t look now friends Atlanta Falcons T-Shirt , but Tennessee might just make a bowl game. After beating Kentucky pretty handily, 24-7, the Vols ate are at five wins with two games remaining. Nothing is certain, but a bowl game for Pruitt in his first year would be a pretty big deal, and an overperformance relative to preseason projections and general expectations. With Kentucky, the roadmap was clear. If you hold them under 3 yards per carry, you win (unless you’re Missouri, in which case you’ll lose on an untimed down after regulation). The Wildcats did rush for 3.9 sack-adjusted yards, but Tennessee changed the game state by halftime by getting out to a big lead and making the Cats have to chase the game. Pruitt had his defense ready to stop the ‘Cats, and held them to only 3.6 per play. Pruitt’s shown an ability to come up with creative blitz packages like this. And when you’re up 17 Atlanta Falcons Hats , you can really sic the dawgs on your opponent. Tennessee’s showing some fight late in this season. That’s more than can be expected for a team that tanked at the end of last season. Tennessee navigated a tough four-game stretch by going 1-3 (against South Carolina in a close loss, Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn). They aren’t making the Playoff anytime soon, but they do actually have postseason hopes within grasp with Missouri and Vanderbilt ahead on the schedule. Win one, and the Vols are bowling. This is where I tell you not to make this into more than it is. This is one football team getting incrementally better over the course of a season. They won one game you wouldn’t have projected them to earlier this season against Auburn, and they beat a pretty good Kentucky team. They nearly beat South Carolina, and the Florida game was a bit flukey due to six turnovers. The Vols are in a good place for now, and it can very well mean nothing long-term. Neither Tennessee nor Jeremy Pruitt have done really anything to earn benefit of the doubt about parlaying this. You’ll remember: one Derek Dooley struggled through his first season to 2-6, then won out to make a bowl game. It can go really poorly in the future Atlanta Falcons Hoodie , but for now the Vols are looking alright. FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) — The Atlanta Falcons placed rookie running back Ito Smith on injured reserve with a knee injury on Monday and are moving closer to ruling out a return for starter Devonta Freeman this season.Coach Dan Quinn said Monday Smith will have surgery this week.Smith, a rookie, was questionable with back and knee injuries before aggravating the knee injury in Sunday's 40-14 win over the Arizona Cardinals . Quinn said the injury is not to Smith's anterior cruciate ligament. Smith is the ninth Atlanta player to be placed on IR this season.Quinn said it is "unlikely" Freeman will return this season. Freeman, placed on IR on Oct. 16 with a groin injury, isn't ready to practice for this week's game at Carolina.This is the first week Freeman would have been eligible to return, though that was never considered a strong possibility.Quinn stopped short of saying Freeman had no chance to return but said "… he's not ready to practice yet so unless that would change this week, that's probably where we'll stay. We were going to give him every option we could to make sure we're looking out for him and to keep making progress, but I think that would be unlikely at this point."Freeman, who ran for more than 1 Cheap Customized Atlanta Falcons Jerseys ,000 yards in both 2015 and 2016, had only 14 carries for 68 yards in two games this season before finally being placed on IR.The injury to Freeman, one of the NFL's highest-paid running backs, was a devastating blow to the Atlanta offense. Quarterback Matt Ryan counts on the running game to set up play-action passes.The Falcons entered the game against Arizona ranked last in the league in rushing . Atlanta (5-9) snapped a five-game losing streak with the win.Freeman's injury created an opening for Smith to play behind Tevin Coleman .Smith ran for 315 yards, averaging 3.5 yards per carry, with four touchdowns this season. He had 27 receptions for 152 yards.Smith, a fourth-round draft pick from Southern Mississippi, earned a larger role late in the season and appears to have won Quinn's trust as a part of the offense in 2019."He's shown he can catch the ball out of the backfield, he can protect," Quinn said. "Having those kinds of moments I think were important steps in his progress. That's what I told him today. Not only showing you belong Womens Customized Atlanta Falcons Jerseys , this is the offense you can thrive in. You can catch, you can run zone, you can make people miss. I think he's got a big future."Brian Hill, who had three carries for seven yards against the Cardinals, is expected to see a larger role against Carolina. The Falcons likely will sign veteran running back Jeremy Langford from their practice squad.