Tennessee’s offense struggled again for the entire first half. But the defense kept them alive and the Vols did enough to keep them alive and eventually earn a 24-17 victory over their most hated rival.
Here’s four quick takeaways on how things went down.
Missed Scoring Opportunities Keep Killing Tennessee
Dylan Sampson broke through into the Tennessee secondary on an outside run and moved into the Alabama red zone while picking up the first down. Only Alabama’s Malachi Moore forced a fumble at the end of the run and the Crimson Tide recovered.
Just like a week ago against Florida, the Vols’ first drive of the game ended with a lost fumble in the red zone. The rest of the first half followed a similar feel with Tennessee missing scoring opportunity after scoring opportunity.
Nico Iamaleava missed an open Chris Brazzell down the field on a third-and-long. He later missed a wide open Squirrel White behind the Alabama defense on a drive that ended with a missed field goal. The Vols missed another long field goal on their second to their final drive of the first half.
Between the missed field goals was Tennessee’s best drive of the first half when the Vols got it to first-and-10 at the Alabama 19-yard line. That’s when Iamaleava forced a pass into coverage while being hit and was intercepted.
In a first half where Tennessee could have easily scored in the high-20s, the Vols didn’t score a single point for the third straight first half.
A Game Of Penalties
Both Tennessee and Alabama came into this game as teams that commit penalties at a rate that ranked at the very bottom of the SEC.
That continued to be the case as Alabama committed 15 penalties for 115 yards and Tennessee committed 11 penalties for 195 yards.
Both had costly penalties. The biggest stretch for Tennessee came with them driving early in the fourth quarter. Illegal touching cost them five yards and was a loss of down on first down. Then Josh Heupel and Joey Halzle drew up a beautiful play on third-and-10 running a speed option that picked up 15 yards. But Chris Brazzell held past the line to gain and brought it back to third-and-five.
Alabama blew up the third down run and Tennessee was forced to punt in plus territory.
The Crimson Tide didn’t have as many costly penalties in a sequence like that but a number of pre snap penalties hurt their offense and a defensive pass interference came right before Tennessee’s first touchdown of the game.
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Tennessee Finds Some Rushing Success In Second Half
As Alabama dared Tennessee to beat them through the air, the Vols rushing offense struggled to get going in the first half. Tennessee totaled just 44 yards on the ground and only star running back Dylan Sampson totaled only 35 of them.
But in the second half, Tennessee started to get its running game going. On its first touchdown drive of the night, the Vols went 91 yards on seven plays. Only one was a pass attempt with Sampson totaling rushes of 13 and 36 yards while Iamaleava scrambled for 27 yards himself.
Tennessee got its run game going throughout the second half and after totaling just 44 yards in the first half, the Vols rushed for 150 yards in the second half. Sampson accounted for 104 yards with two of them going for touchdowns.
Tennessee’s Defense Deserves Its Flowers
Tennessee’s defense has been dominant all season. But it’s always come with the caveat that the Vols had not faced any good offenses.
Well against the best offense they’ll face all season, the Vols’ defense stepped up in a major way and held the Crimson Tide to just 17 points. And when Tennessee’s offense struggled badly again in the first half, they allowed just seven points to keep them in the game.
Two of Alabama’s first three drives of the second half led to points and the Crimson Tide moved the ball well. But from there, Tennessee’s defense was absolutely stellar.
On its final four drives, Alabama went three-and-out to set up Tennessee’s go ahead touchdown. Then went three-and-out. Then went four-and-out and set up Tennessee in its own territory with a chance to put the game away. Tennessee had to settle for a field goal that made it a seven-point game.
Then Will Brooks, the pride of Vestavia Hills, Alabama, intercepted Jalen Milroe to seal the victory over the Crimson Tide.
