Tennessee used its bye week to its advantage, putting all the pieces together and sending No. 14 Georgia home with a loss Saturday, beating the Bulldogs 35-14.

Tennessee controlled the line of scrimmage, rushing 44 times for 190 yards on the day, while holding Georgia to 69 yards on the ground.

"When we needed to run it, we ran the football," Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge said. "When they knew we were running the football, we still ran the football."

Arian Foster racked up 98 yards and three touchdowns, while teammate Montario Hardesty had 70 yards and a score.

"The line, it was just getting a big push today and it was really easy to tell," Foster said. "I didn't do (anything) but do my job. Hats off to the line, all the running backs ran great today."

The tailbacks weren't the only ones praising the work of the offensive line.

"That's five games and no sacks, I don't know when the last time that's happened," said Ainge, who finished the day 17-for-22 for 165 yards.

The offense raced out to a 28-0 lead in the first half.  The big play of the half was familiar to the Neyland crowd, as Lucas Taylor faked a reverse and threw a 56-yard touchdown to a wide open LaMarcus Coker.  The Vols ran that same play for a score against Florida in 2006.

"Lucas Taylor played quarterback in high school," Ainge said. "He can throw it falling backwards on his back foot."

The defense kept the Bulldogs off the scoreboard until 9:39 remaining in the third quarter.  Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford finished 16-for-33 for 174 yards and two touchdowns.

Rico McCoy and Jerod Mayo each finished with a team-leading 11 tackles for the Vols.

"Defensively, we haven't been nearly as consistent as we were seemingly today, getting off blocks, primarily, and taking up our gaps responsibilities," head coach Phillip Fulmer said. "We did that, took away most of their perimeter runs which was a concern going into the game, and kept them between the tackles."

The Volunteers had success on third downs converting 7-of-14 opportunities, and they also converted their only fourth down attempt.

"(Converting third downs) is very important," Foster said. "We had a lot of trouble early on in the season; it was kind of our breaker. We just emphasized that in practice and when something's not going right, you go to work at it, and we went to work at it."

The win puts Tennessee right in the middle of the SEC East race, and gave the Vols some confidence, according to Foster.

"I think we just took it upon ourselves that we'd had enough," Foster said. "We just took it out on the practice field, and that same intensity we had on the practice field we brought it out there today. The crowd was great and this atmosphere was fun."

Tennessee (3-2, 1-1 SEC) returns to action on the road next Saturday at Mississippi State, with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m.