The 49-10 loss was the most lopsided victory by either team in the series since Alabama’s 51-0 win in 1906. Their overall winning streak is up to 19 straight games now, the longest active streak in the FBS.
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Alabama already had the best defense in the country coming into the season. In his three seasons at Alabama, Kiffin is 4-0 against his former teams, outscoring them a combined 154-50. The Aggies (6-0, 4-0 SEC) were off last weekend, while the Crimson Tide (7-0, 4-0) on Saturday crushed then-No.
Nick Saban is a flawless 10-0 against Tennessee.
Alabama. Not much came easy for Tennessee in the first half of the season.
Injuries aren’t the sole reason that the Vols were crushed on Saturday, but one can only wonder how the outcome would change in names like Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Cameron Sutton and Darrin Kirkland Jr. donned an orange jersey against the Crimson Tide.
Austin Allen was 19-of-32 for 229 yards and three touchdowns for Arkansas, giving the junior an SEC-best 18 touchdown passes. Damien Harris also had 94 yards on 14 carries. Four of those teams, Mississippi, Miami (Fla.), Virginia Tech and North Dakota State, are not on this week’s ballot, while Tennessee dropped seven spots and I held Wisconsin steady at 12 after its overtime loss to Ohio State.
“This is as proud of our team as I’ve been all year long in terms of playing a complete game against a very good team, especially in a tough environment”, Saban said. The only points the Vols managed in the second half came from the foot of Aaron Medley from 37-yards out in the third. Alabama went up 42-10 and that did for even the most optimistic Vols fans.
“It’s just guys finishing (plays), you know”.
Hurts finished the game with 143 yards passing, 132 yards rushing and three rushing touchdowns.
In just his seventh career game, Hurts became the first quarterback in Alabama history to run for 120-plus yards a second time during his career.
Tennessee had 127 yards of offense, an anemic 24 rushing. Jackson added a 79-yard punt return for Alabama’s 11th non-offensive touchdown of the year.
For the rest of the SEC West – and the entire NCAA for that matter – it’s still the Crimson Tide’s world. That set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Hurts to break the game open at 28-7 with 9:02 left in the third quarter. Two snaps later, Ralph Webb scored on a 1-yard plunge to give the Commodores a 7-0 lead just 22 seconds into the game.
It was over for Tennessee. “Again, it’s a line of scrimmage league, it’s a line of scrimmage game, and you’re not going to win any football games giving up the rushing yards and with the lack of rushing productivity we had tonight”. Harrison went the distance untouched. Berry stepping up on key third downs at the point n time when the game still matters is the reason Berry gets the nod. He also had a fumble on a sack that led to Tennessee’s only touchdown. “They have a lot of quarterback runs where he has made a lot of explosive plays, whether it’s quarterback draws or zone read or slipper plays where he keeps the ball and has a blocker in front of him”. The Vols must figure out how to divide carries between Hurd and Alvin Kamara, who had a school-record 312 all-purpose yards last week.
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Late in the first quarter the Crimson Tide’s Ronnie Harrison intercepted a Dobbs screen pass in the right flat – he was 6 of 15 in the first 30 minutes – and raced 58 yards for a TD that produced a 14-0 lead.
