Tennessee football heads to Tuscaloosa to face No. 11 Alabama on The Third Saturday in October. The Vols are looking for their second straight win in the series and their first in in Tuscaloosa since 2003.
Here’s three keys for Tennessee football to defeat Alabama.
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Avoid Pre Snap Penalties
Pre snap penalties cost Tennessee badly in road losses at Florida earlier this year and at Georgia last November. The mistakes were integral in the Vols spiraling in the second quarter in Gainesville and Tennessee can’t go through a stretch of poor play like that and come out victorious against Alabama.
It’s challenging enough to play from behind the sticks with a lethal passing offense like Tennessee had last season. It’s virtually impossible to do so with the non existent passing game the Vols have had for much of the season.
Tennessee showed last week against Texas A&M that it can move the ball with its run game against anyone. That gives the Vols’ offense a fighting chance against a strong Alabama defense. But the run game isn’t good enough to overcome consistently playing from behind the sticks.
Josh Heupel emphasized doing the ordinary things with consistency this week. Avoiding pre snap penalties is where that starts. If the Vols want to pull the upset they must do that.
Keep The Alabama Passing Game In Front Of You
Here’s some numbers from Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe this season.
On passes over 20 yards in the air: 61% completion percentage, 737 passing yards, nine touchdowns and zero interceptions.
On passes under 20 yards in the air: 65% completion percentage, 662 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.
Alabama’s offense is at best when throwing the football down the field. With a lackluster run game and shaky short and intermediate passing, the Crimson Tide have struggled to sustain long drives this season.
That makes the formula for Tennessee’s defense pretty simple. Keep everything in Alabama’s passing game in front of you. It should be a familiar game plan. For most of Tim Banks’ tenure as defensive coordinator, Tennessee has tried to avoid giving up the big play by giving up short passes and making teams drive down the field with consistency. If they do that against the Crimson Tide, they’ll have defensive success.
Tennessee’s defense has been good at avoiding big passing plays this season in large part due to the vast improvement of its pass rush. However, Alabama has the best downfield passing attack that Tennessee has faced this season. It will be a major test and the Vols need Kamal Hadden to step up.
Win The Red Zone Battle
Despite all of Tennessee’s offensive shortcomings this season, they’ve moved the football between the 20-yard lines pretty well. But as the field has shrunk in the red zone the Vols’ offense has struggled.
Tennessee was spoiled by Hendon Hooker’s brilliant play last season which in turn made the Vols nearly perfect in the red zone.
Last week against Texas A&M, Tennessee scored just 13 points on five trips to the red zone. It’s hard to win competitive games in the SEC with that lack of red zone efficiency.
Alabama hasn’t quite had the same red zone issues that Tennessee has but they’ve been far from perfect in the red zone themselves. It’s part of the reason why the Crimson Tide have been so dependent on explosive pass plays to score this season.
As we enter what’s expected to be a low scoring matchup, red zone efficiency on both sides is going to be an extremely important aspect of the game. With Tennessee trying to pull the upset, winning the battle in the red zone is a great way to even the game’s margins.
