TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Looking for its first win at Alabama in over two decades, Tennessee football shot itself in the foot over-and-over for 60 minutes falling to the Crimson Tide 37-20.
Here’s four quick takeaways as Tennessee drops its second game of the season.
Self Inflicted Mistakes Cost Tennessee’s Offense
For Tennessee to pull the upset, its offense needed to play a clean football game. Its offense did anything but. Tennessee committed five offensive penalties, consistently making it difficult to sustain success.
The self inflicted mistakes began at the game’s offset. After an eight-yard gain on the game’s first play, a false start moved Tennessee back and led to a three-and-out. It was the first time this season that Tennessee did not score on its opening drive of the game.
On its second drive, Braylon Staley lined up wrong which led to an illegal man down the field to remove a Chris Brazzell 17-yard catch that would have moved Tennessee into scoring range. Instead, Tennessee punted two plays later.
The Vols had all the momentum when they took over at their own 18-yard line, tied 7-7 in the second quarter. Staley blocked early on a screen pass leading to offensive pass interference that backed Tennessee back. One play later, Joey Aguilar had bad pocket presence with an intentional grounding leading to a safety.
After a third quarter fumble, Tennessee failed to score after Sam Pendleton snapped the ball when Aguilar wasn’t looking and then Mike Matthews had a poorly timed drop on third down.
Despite the significant difference on the scoreboard, Tennessee was plenty good enough to win. But self inflicted mistakes never gave them much of a chance.
An End Of First Half Debacle
Tennessee had it first-and-goal at the two-yard line with one timeout and 12 seconds to play in the first half trailing 16-7. The Vols had already twice converted on fourth down on the drive and was clearly playing for a touchdown and not a field goal.
The Vols tried to run the ball on first down but picked up just one yard and had to take their final timeout. Out of timeouts, Tennessee had to throw the ball or risk not getting any points if another run didn’t reach the end zone.
Yet Tennessee came out in its goal line formation. Kalen DeBoer called his final timeout to seemingly remind his defense of the situation. Tennessee stayed in goal line and ran play action. Zabien Brown bated Joey Aguilar into a throw to Miles Kitselman and Aguilar’s throw was on the inside hip making it an easy interception.
Running back DeSean Bishop was the one line of defense and took a bad angle and was unable to bring Brown to the ground. The 100-yard pick six put Alabama up 23-7 at halftime seconds after Tennessee was on the verge of making it a 16-14 game.
It was a bad throw by Aguilar, who absolutely can not put the ball in harm’s way in the spot. But it was even worse from Heupel, going heavy when everyone in the stadium knew that Tennessee had to pass.
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Tennessee’s Defense Responds To Begin The Second Half
The end of the first half and start of the second half was almost a complete inverse of the 2023 game in Tuscaloosa. This time around, Tennessee’s defense stood strong after a catastrophic end to the first half. The Vols forced a three-and-out to begin the second half before their offense went down the field and scored a touchdown to cut the deficit to 10 points.
Alabama moved past midfield on its second drive of the second half before Simpson fumbled on third down, setting the Vols’ up with the football at midfield.
Tennessee’s offense didn’t capitalize thanks to a pair of self inflicted mistakes previously mentioned. The Vols’ defense followed it up with their worst drive of the year as Alabama went 99 yards in nine plays to put the game away. But the Vols’ defense gave them a chance to make a true game out of it before the missed opportunity.
A Rough Night For Tennessee’s Pass Protection
Tennessee’s offensive line has been a strength this season and that’s especially been the case in pass protection where the Vols had given up just four sacks for 23 yards entering the Third Saturday in October.
Alabama matched that number Saturday, sacking Joey Aguilar four times for a loss of 33 yards. The most significant sack came on the intentional grounding for a safety but they were an issue for Tennessee’s offense throughout the game. In defense of the offensive line, a couple of the sacks were largely coverage sacks with Aguilar having nowhere to go with the football.
Entering the game, Tennessee seemed to clearly have a pass rush advantage in this matchup. But Alabama’s pass rush made a much bigger impact on the game. It made the Vols’ path to victory much less likely though certainly not impossible.
