By Camden Gober
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 11 Tennessee falls short with a loss to No. 6 Alabama, 37-20, inside Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday night. The loss extended the Vols’ road losing streak in Tuscaloosa, dating back to 2003, to 11 games.
Tennessee had its fair share of chances to make things interesting down the stretch in the second half, but the Vols could never seem to make the game-changing play they needed to put some pressure on the Tide.
Tennessee had its opportunities throughout the game to flip the momentum; however, self-inflicted wounds proved to be the Vols’ demise. Costly penalties and miscues killed the Vols all night long.
“Ultimately, offensively, just self-inflicted wounds in the first half killed a bunch of our drives,” said Heupel. “The positive is the way they came out and competed early in the second half. Defense, good stop, offense goes and scores, turnover— we don’t take advantage of it. Self-inflicted wounds on that possession again.”
It appeared Tennessee was going to have all the momentum heading into halftime; however, a 99-yard Joey Aguilar pick-six as time expired in the first half blew the game wide open in favor of the Tide.
“He (Joey Aguilar) leaves the ball inside a bit and it goes back for six. Big play in the football game for sure,” said Heupel. “We have to be accurate with the ball or if not throw it away, you got one more play. That’s not me putting it on Joey either. Ultimately, it’s all of us.”
Tennessee’s inability to stop the Tide down the stretch made it feel like a slow, grueling death, as Alabama’s offense controlled the pace while precious time ticked away on the Vols.
“Alabama had a great offense. We knew that coming into the game, we knew it would be a battle,” said Jeremiah Tellander. “They just went out there and performed and we didn’t have our best night. It’s about the little details, and the ball didn’t roll our way tonight.”
With the loss, Tennessee dropped to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in SEC play. With the new landscape of college football, Tennessee is not quite out of the College Football Playoff running yet.
“We just got to be us. You know you look at our two losses, lot of self-inflicted wounds,” said Tennessee running back DeSean Bishop. “We got Kentucky next week, and we just got to focus on them.”
The Vols will look to bounce back next week against Kentucky (2-4, 0-4) on the road in Lexington. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.