Postgame thread: Alabama comes up short in Knoxville

The first half of this game was pretty ugly for all sides. Alabama’s secondary let three Tennessee receivers get behind them again, but QB Nico Iamaleava was unable to hit them. Outside of those plays, the defense played a stellar half. On offense, Jalen Milroe sprinkled in a few positive plays, but played perhaps his worst half of football all season to include a terrible pick in the end zone on second and goal from the three yard line.

Both sides did a pretty decent job of stopping the run and forcing the other team’s struggling QB to try and move the football, and it was mostly successful. MIlroe finally broke through with a short touchdown pass to Ryan Williams in the second quarter to stake Alabama to a 7-0 lead that it would hold until halftime.Tennessee coach Josh Heupel made some head scratching decisions in the first half. Early on he eschewed a chance to go for 4th and 3 at the Alabama 35, instead opting for a 53 yard field goal try that wasn’t terribly close. He tried another one from 50 later in the half that also missed, and when Iamaleava got nicked up for one play he allowed the backup QB to throw a pick on 3rd and 9.

Alabama got a three and out to open the second half, then got a nice little drive going with the run game to push the ball near midfield. Kalen DeBoer decided to punt on 4th and 2 at his own 48, however, and Tennessee took advantage with their first great drive of the ballgame to tie things at seven apiece.

Alabama was able to answer with a decent drive of its own but stalled out in the red zone. A field goal from Graham Nicholson made it 10-7. Unfortunately, Iamaleava promptly found the first deep completion for either team, 61 yards down the sideline to Dont’e Thornton Jr. Star RB Dylan Sampson punched it in one play later, and the Vols led 14-10 headed into the fourth quarter.

To their credit, Alabama’s offense kept battling. A big run from Jam Miller followed by a beautiful hookup on a crossing route to Germie Bernard set up a Justice Haynes touchdown for a tenuous 17-14 Alabama lead. Unfortunately there was only one more scoring drive to be had, and it belonged to Tennessee. A beautiful diving catch by Chris Brazzell II staked Tennessee to a 21-17 advantage.

Alabama has been an undisciplined team all season, and that didn’t change tonight. Tennessee was flagged for a whopping 11 penalties but that was no match for Alabama’s 15, including an inexcusable personal foul on Kendrick Law to turn a late 4th-and-7 into a 4th-and-22. The Tide came up short, Tennessee added a late field goal as a result, and the game ended 24-17.

So, here we are. A close loss at Tennessee doesn’t really hurt a playoff resume, but the Tide used up all its margin of error with the Vandy loss. At this point any playoff appearance will require perfection the rest of the way. The good news is that the schedule doesn’t look quite as formidable the rest of the way as it once did. The next two games against Mizzou and LSU are now must-win affairs, and the offense will have to play much better to have any hope of getting there.

Vent as you will, but please don’t behave like knuckleheads. There is more football on for you tonight, headlined by Georgia at Texas.

Roll Tide.