This incarnation means much the same as many others have during Nick Saban’s nine seasons in Tuscaloosa.
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What did you do to celebrate Alabama’s win over Tennessee?
Not that Saban was blind to the Tide’s mistakes. Cam Sutton was burned more often than usual against Alabama because he was forced to do more because Malik Foreman and Emmanuel Moseley have been liabilities at times for the Vols this season, and they proved to be yet again on Saturday.
The message: “They’re not stopping us”. While the defensive line finally began to show their potential against Alabama, the offensive line came unglued at the worst possible time. This was the just-good-enough-when-it-had-to-be version that carefully rationed its skill. The drive was capped off on a Josh Dobbs pass to Josh Smith. But that’s when the Tide took control. Coker threw a jump ball on the Tennessee sideline to ArDarius Stewart to the Tennessee 44. Kelly returned to his starting role after missing the second half of last weekend’s game at Texas A&M and helped pave the way for 364 yards of total offense, including 143 yards rushing for junior tailback Derrick Henry, who also found the end zone twice.
As the Tide exhausted, their competition has gotten fresher, but with a huge SEC West clash against LSU coming up on November. 7, it’s finally time for Alabama to rest. The Volunteers lost 24-20 after being tied at 17 at halftime. And it looked like they just might do that as Dobbs connected with Malone for another first down.
Take the Alabama defense that turned any given Bulldogs quarterback into marmalade.
As was the case during the 5-0 start, much attention has been focused on quarterback Kyle Allen during the back-to-back losses.
“I thought he did a good job of tackling in space and leveraging the football”, Jones said. “The only way we could lose the game was to fumble the ball”. Alabama’s Jarran Reed and Reggie Ragland both received second-round grades from the NFL Draft Advisory Board last winter, and several top underclassmen, including Henry, were on display as well.
It’s become a narrative all too familiar for Vol fans, but “waiting till next year” for the Vols to finally break through and win these games seems the best response. He scrambled in the pocket to keep plays and drives alive and went 13 of 22 for 171 yards passing with a touchdown. Didn’t have a lot of energy like we usually do.
“Those guys all kind of came up to me and said we were all playing for Altee and Altee was with us all”, Kamara said.
Alex Collins ran for 154 yards when Arkansas won at Tennessee and averages 112 yards per game as he zeros in on a third straight 1,000-yard season. I think our players really tried. I think they were mentally and physically exhausted today.
The Vols advanced to their 35-yard line before a penalty, a sack by Tide defensive lineman Jonathan Allen and the game-sealing strip-sack from Anderson.
CBS selected the LSU-Alabama regular season game for the ninth straight year, including the last five in prime time. That Tennessee started horribly against one and brightly against the other only underscores the sense of mystery which envelops this team… and the brand-name opponents which have faced it. They are hoping they are back on an upswing and able to find their bearings after their off week. Championship teams do just that.
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– Guerry Clegg is an independent correspondent.
