For those who were alive during the 1980s, Alabama went into Jackson, Miss., on Oct. 7, 1989, and after about 8 minutes of game time, found itself down 21-0 to the Rebels.
The next time Ole Miss scored, it was to cut the deficit to 35 points at 62-27.
The one thing most Alabama fans know about the offense of the 2023 team is that it’s not really built to be a quick-strike unit. The gameplan for Alabama to win games, and not just this particular game against this particular opponent, has been to control the clock, shorten the game, grind out yardage with a decent stable of running backs, and hit a spot here and there downfield.
It certainly wasn’t built to come back from a 20-7 deficit in a single half against a Tennessee team that had itself developed one of the conference’s best running games to go with one of the conference’s best defenses.
But that’s just what Alabama did Saturday, getting up off the canvas to put 27 straight on the Volunteers, win 34-20, and keep its championship hopes alive.
Tennessee rolled up 404 yards of total offense on the day. Half of that came in the first quarter, and then Bama put the clamps on the Vol offense after that. More importantly, Alabama had only about 20 rushing yards at the half, and then finished the game by adding roughly another 120 yards to that, out-rushing Tennessee in the process.
Aside from the Texas loss – and, rather without explanation, the win over Arkansas last week – Alabama has consistently won the halftime adjustment game all year long, on both offense and defense. Never was that more apparent than today, as Tennessee’s Josh Heupel and defensive staff went from heroes to zeroes – literally – over the last 30 minutes of the game.
Alabama made subtle changes to its defensive front alignment, according to Nick Saban in his postgame press conference. Those changes seemed to confuse Tennessee and the effect on both the Volunteer running game and its option passing game were evident. It also bears mentioning that Alabama made Tennessee WR Squirrel White return to his usual mortal state after a first half where he seemed to be in six places at once; even more impressive was that Alabama pulled off the feat with CB Terrion Arnold sitting on the sidelines after suffering a first-half concussion.
It’s not lost on anyone, either, that a year after Alabama got hit with every penalty imaginable and lost a key turnover to a borderline, very-late flag for pass interference, Alabama finished this game flagged just once for a loss of 5 yards, while Heupel was left to steam about his own team’s penalty woes.
The importance of how Alabama responded to the adversity of the first half can’t be overstated. If Alabama had lost this game, championship hopes would have immediately died. There are too many other decent teams – and at least as of this writing, too many undefeated teams – for Alabama to try to thread a needle with two losses at the end of the year. But the impact goes well beyond that: This is one of those games Nick Saban can point to at a later point in the season, when the chips are down and the team is too, and say, “You’ve done it before, and you can do it again.”
The opportunity to do so may come as early as two weeks from now. LSU is Alabama’s toughest regular-season foe in 2023, tougher than this Tennessee team and probably a tougher matchup than Texas due just to the number of ways LSU’s offense is capable of beating other teams. But would anyone count this Alabama team out right now? After watching the resiliency shown against the Volunteers, we would say no.
Nick Saban began the week urging fans to show up and make Bryant-Denny Stadium a loud and intimidating place. It is rare for Saban to directly ask for such, but this week, he did. He ended his day at the stadium with a special victory lap down to the southeast corner of the stadium to salute the students and others on that side, as the crowd helped trigger a pair of procedure penalties for the Tennessee offense late in the game. Sometimes, certain games just mean more, even to an old curmudgeon like Saban.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-Tennessee:
1. Offensive play design brought new wrinkles, kept Tennessee defense off-balance. Statistically, Alabama’s offense has been in the dumpster all year, but the team is 7-1, the offense exploded for 27 points in the second half and sometimes stats either lie or at least don’t tell the whole truth. This is one of those cases. Most people knew Alabama would be working with a hand tied behind its back in the passing game this year, at least until Jalen Milroe got comfortable playing quarterback. In this game, Tennessee out-gained Alabama and the Crimson Tide finished the day with just 358 total yards, but the offense operated with efficiency and enough ingenuity to keep Tennessee guessing. Going back to our comment on halftime adjustments, Alabama dialed up the pre-snap motion in the second half and did just enough to let RB Jase McClellan find the creases he needed. Make no mistake, this was a good performance against a veteran defense that has been consistently solid in 2023. Even the interception in the end zone was more of a bad break – the pass hit WR Jermaine Burton squarely on his shoulder pad – than it was a bad throw, bad call or bad decision. Alabama will need to execute as well for four quarters next game as it did for three quarters against Tennessee, because LSU’s offense is several degrees more potent. But Rees earned his pay today.
2. Jase McClellan put on a clinic in the second half, and Bama’s backs outplayed their UT counterparts. But OL needs to continue to improve. McClellan’s second half against Tennessee wasn’t explosive, but it will be remembered for some time for his show of toughness and endurance. McClellan finished with 115 yards on 27 tough carries, and was a stalwart blocking for Jalen Milroe on pass plays. We profiled a mismatch at the running back position before the game, but it didn’t work out that way for Tennessee. Top back Jaylen Wright had 22 empty yards on 11 carries. Jabari Small was held to 24 yards on 8 carries. Dylan Sampson had better luck, 28 yards on 4 carries, but wasn’t used much. Joe Milton led Tennessee with 59 yards, and probably would have been even more effective if Tennessee had called more runs specifically for him. Back to Alabama, Roydell Williams (6 carries, 20 yards) did enough to spell McClellan, and Milroe had a couple of big runs in clutch situations, but Bama still needs to get better overall production and it starts up front. The offensive line improved upon its Arkansas performance, especially given how superior Tennessee’s defensive front has been in comparison prior to this game. But it was far from perfect; Seth McLaughlin had a rough day in the middle, and communication errors got Milroe killed a couple of times from the outside rush.
3. Cornerback play was outstanding, especially in light of Arnold’s injury. Neither Arnold nor fellow starting cornerback Ga’Quincy McKinstry had allowed much to Tennessee’s receivers early on – most of slot WR Squirrel White’s 111 yards came working against safeties or linebackers – but then Arnold was ruled out of the second half of the game. In stepped Trey Amos, and Alabama didn’t miss a step. The second half put up by Amos and McKinstry may have been some of the best CB play Alabama has gotten in years, and that’s saying a lot. It was Amos’ diagnosis of a stem route that triggered the strip-sack from Chris Braswell that was returned for a score by Jihaad Campbell. Bama’s corners have played at an elite level all season and this week was no different.
4. Bama’s linebackers made the most difference defensively in the second half, and have improved tremendously in 2023. Both the inside duo of Deontae Lawson and Jihaad Campbell and the outside trio of Dallas Turner, Chris Braswell and Quandarrius Robinson came to play in this game. Lawson may have had his best day of the year, diagnosing Tennessee’s often-complicated running game gaps and doing just enough in coverage over the middle to frustrate the Tennessee backs and tight ends. Campbell made several veteran plays, and his scoop following Braswell’s strip-sack is already a play for the ages. Turner and Braswell in general did a phenomenal job pinching off the outside of Tennessee’s running game, forcing the Vols back inside, where Campbell and Lawson were waiting. The defensive line played well, too – Justin Eboigbe continues to dominate, and Tim Keenan had another solid day – but it was the second line of the Bama defense that showed up the most.
5. Special teams: Will Reichard continues to be a huge weapon for this team, but punt returns need a different approach. Reichard barely snuck a couple of field goals through, but they don’t ask how, they just ask how many. He has as good a shot as anyone has had, or will have, at eclipsing the FBS scoring record, and if Bama gets six more games this year, he’ll probably do it. But suddenly, there is a huge issue in the punt return game. Ga’Quincy McKinstry has become tentative following a muffed punt earlier in the year, and a couple of the balls he let go by him today could have cost Alabama. The Tide lost 20-plus yards on his last return alone, where he inexplicably passed up what would have been a clean fair catch and watched the ball trickle back to the 3-yard line instead. Isaiah Bond is the backup at that spot, but Bond’s hands can sometimes be erratic. Cole Adams, Emmanuel Henderson Jr. and Terrion Arnold have all gotten some looks at the spot in practice, and now may be the time to pull the trigger before the problem gets any worse in games.
Follow Jess Nicholas on X at @TideFansJessN