KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 4 Alabama didn’t exorcise all of its road demons in Saturday night’s 34-20 win over Tennessee, but it did enough to overcome the orange-clad Volunteers and the more than 102,000 fans at Neyland Stadium.
The Crimson Tide started the game well, halting the Volunteers’ opening drive with a Xzavier Dickson sack of sophomore quarterback Nathan Peterman, forcing a punt and scoring on a 80-yard pass from quarterback Blake Sims to junior receiver Amari Cooper on the next play. The Crimson Tide would go on to score touchdowns on each of its next two possessions, taking a 20-0 lead by the end of the 1st quarter. Blake Sims ran for a touchdown on Alabama’s first drive of the 2nd quarter, putting the Crimson Tide up 27-0.
Tennessee worked itself back into the game over the course of the next three quarters, taking advantage of some Alabama mistakes. After a game with no penalties and no turnovers against Texas A&M last week, Alabama turned the ball over twice in the 4th quarter Saturday night and was penalized six times for a total of 50 yards.
“Well, you know that was a heck of a game for both teams,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “Rivalry games can be that way. I really thought our guys were ready to go in the beginning of this game. Played great in the first quarter and a half of the game, got ahead 27 to nothing in the game and I think when we did, we relaxed a little bit. You’ve got to give Tennessee’s guys a whole lot of credit because they sure didn’t flinch and they didn’t give up at all and they kept playing hard.”
Cooper had a record-setting night for the Crimson Tide, racking up 224 yards and two touchdowns on 9 catches, the most receiving yards in a single game in Alabama history. Cooper’s mark passed the 221 yards put up on the Vols by Julio Jones in 2010.
“I felt great out there.” Cooper said. “I love playing at this stadium for some reason all these people. I just tried to take advantage of all the things we worked on in practice.”
Cooper and Sims helped lead the Alabama offense to 469 yards — below the season average of 514.6 yards per game but by far the team’s highest total on the road. In its two true road games this season prior to Tennessee, Alabama averaged 311.5 yards per game.
“I think we’ve got a team that’s sort of up and down a little bit,” Saban said. “We struggled a little bit at Arkansas. We played great against Texas A&M. We played great at times in this game today, and played so-so in times in this game today. So, I think consistency in performance is what’s going to be the key to being successful down the road and I think that’s something all of our players need to understand, and I think they do understand that. We have to be able to play Alabama football on a more consistent basis. That’s something that everybody’s got to be committed to and all in to trying to do.”
Alabama allowed 383 yards of offense to Tennessee, just above the Volunteers’ season average of 325. Through the air, Alabama gave up 202 yards, including 192 yards to sophomore Joshua Dobbs, marking his first appearance as the first-team quarterback. Dobbs entered the game for Peterman after two drives. Peterman started in place of injured senior Justin Worley.
“We had to get back into it,” junior safety Landon Collins said. “We had to show this game wasn’t over with and they were coming back. We were fighting hard. We just showed we were ready and played dominant defense and continued all four quarters. It was a different quarterback than we were expecting. We had to adjust our calls and then expected more runs.”
At home, Alabama has been unbeatable, outscoring opponents by 161 points in four games. On the road, Alabama has shown a pattern of communication and focus issues, and, with this victory, has outscored three opponents by nine total points, including a 23-17 loss to Ole Miss.
“Everybody’s just got to be more focused and in tune to what coach Saban and all the guys on the coaching staff has got for us,” junior linebacker Reggie Ragland said. “We’ve got to stay more focused on that.”
Saban said Saturday night’s victory is an important step towards establishing the consistency the team so desperately needs,
“It was a great team win for us,” Saban said. “I’m still wanting this team to be a consistently dominant team like we were last week for 60 minutes in the game. You see signs of it, but we weren’t able to do it the whole time.”
Alabama will next play on Nov. 8, when it travels to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to take on No. 24 LSU.
