Alabama lost for the second straight time in Knoxville, and the fanbase handled it as well as you’d think. Players are benched, coaches are fired and fatalism is the theme of the day. Alabama is sure to lose at least two more times, we’re told, and we should feel lucky if we get an invite to a bowl game in the middle of Christmas week.

You’d think Alabama would get blown out by a mediocre team instead of losing by one score en route to what will be a top ten team today. Losing to that particular type of beast brings out some extra anxiety, even if it’s kind of funny to see them tear down the goalposts after beating a team that lost to Vandy.

We will discuss some impressions of the game as usual, but the discipline issue is by far the most concerning. It’s likely that Alabama will win the game if they simply keep the penalties to single digits instead of 15 for over 100 yards again. It was fitting that the last real glimmer of hope was taken away by Kendrick Law’s failure to keep his emotions in check. At some point, the players themselves have to decide that enough is enough if they have postseason aspirations.

Anyway, the match happened, so we might as well break it down a bit. A few impressions:

Jalen Milroe had perhaps his worst game as the starting QB.

Jalen Milroe’s strengths and weaknesses are well documented, but for whatever reason he failed to reach his typical standard yesterday. The most damning statistic was the 0/5 on 20+ passes, which is his strong point. Tennessee was able to successfully take away the deep pass because their front was better than most at containing it. The passing game is certainly not his strength.

Still, he missed wide-open receivers several times on throws he made this year. Much has been made of his progress in this area, and for whatever reason it all took a turn for the worse yesterday. Hopefully it was just a matter of an annoying front and a raucous crowd getting into his kitchen a bit, and the early interception in the end zone probably allowed some doubt to creep in. He certainly wouldn’t be the first QB to be hit in such a situation. one way, but he certainly has plenty to prove again. Hopefully he responds with the chip on his shoulder that we saw earlier this year.

The curators seemed to do everything they could with the opportunities they were given. Germie Bernard really showed up here, and Ryan Williams converted 20 targets into eight catches for 73 yards, which would have been a lot more with better passing. Kendrick Law also broke up some nice YAC plays that few will remember thanks to the late bonehead penalty.

Many are calling for Milroe’s ouster at this stage, which is quite reactionary. Heading into the game against South Carolina, he had played pretty well overall, and the last two games were against very good defensive fronts. It’s fair to say he shouldn’t have an unlimited leash at this stage. If we get into halftime against Mizzou and he’s still missing wide open guys or looking out of sorts, the staff will likely be forced to take him out of the game to observe for a while, if nothing else.

Let’s hope it doesn’t get there, okay? I think everyone would prefer the team to rally at this point, including Jalen.

Alabama’s high school is broken, and that hasn’t helped

This isn’t the time of year when you want injuries to pile up in one position group, especially not the group that had the most roster turnover this offseason. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.

Keon Sabb was a warrior who clearly fought through the pain to be on the field, but was clearly not 100%. The Husky’s top two players, Devonta Smith and Red Morgan, were both injured in the game, forcing King Mack into action, and to be honest, the results weren’t pretty. He looks a bit small for that particular role and tackling has been a big problem. Bray Hubbard has acquitted himself quite well in Sabb’s place. He’s physical, but not sure he or Malachi Moore have the deep speed needed to play single high.

Even Domani Jackson looked a little thin a few times early in the game after appearing on the injury report earlier in the week. Malachi was the bright spot with two huge plays in the game, stripping the ball away from Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson in the red zone on Tennessee’s first possession, then picking off the backup QB when Vols coach Josh Heupel gave him the ball on third and third place. 9.

Alabama still can’t find a consistent run game, and this week they couldn’t stop the run either

Jam Miller and Justice Haynes gained just 64 yards on 20 carries as the passing game failed to loosen up the box. However, this has been a consistent problem even when the passing game has clicked. The interior is the strength of this Alabama offensive line, but for whatever reason there hasn’t been much road correction, which has been a major driver of the offense’s boom and bust.

Alabama’s defense hasn’t been elite this season, but they’ve held up pretty well. Unfortunately, they sprung a leak this week, allowing 175 yards on 31 carries to Tennessee’s running backs. Most alarming was the complete lack of resistance both times the ball entered the five-yard line. They might as well have just gone to the sideline and regrouped during those two plays, because it looked like the Vols were running into the air anyway.

If there was a positive to be found, the front seven was quite active in the passing game, which, along with turnovers, allowed the Tide to take a 7-0 lead into halftime. LT Overton, Qua Russaw, Deontae Lawson and Jihaad Campbell all appeared occasionally on the highlight reel.

That’s really all there is to say about this one. It’s not often that “run the ball and stop the run” is the formula for winning in the modern era, and in fact this wouldn’t have been the recipe if Milroe had simply passed the ball to the typical standard he had . has built up this season. It was clear from the jump that this team would go as far as it could go. We’ve seen some very high highs, and yesterday we saw a pretty low floor.

Needless to say, every match from now on will be ‘do or die’, and how the team responds will tell us a lot about their gut strength, which will rightly be questioned. There’s the potential for distractions next weekend at Homecoming, not to mention veteran dual-threat QB Brady Cook throwing his best shots against a secondary that is suspect even when healthy. And Missouri’s defense is active up front, if not the most talented in the conference.

The single-elimination playoffs for this team begin on Saturday. I guess we’ll see what they’re made of.

Hope for the best.

Roll tide.