Terrible, horrible, no good very bad.
Just a few descriptors which come time mind after Alabama’s gut punch of a loss to Tennessee on Saturday in Knoxville.
The Crimson Tide, who are now winless in the state of Tennessee this year, have done a complete 180 since its win against Georgia just a few weeks ago. After following up the win with a historic loss to Vanderbilt, then winning a rock fight of a game against South Carolina, its loss to the Volunteers today feels like a culmination of all the concerns of this current team.
This Alabama team no doubt had flaws coming into the season, especially after losing key players to the NFL Draft and transfer portal following Nick Saban’s retirement. The win over the Bulldogs may have had fans and media looking through rose colored lenses, but the loss 24-17 loss against Tennessee was a bitter taste of reality.
To put it plainly, the team feels lost and does not execute in the areas needed to win games, especially in the SEC.
Call tonights performance undisciplined would have been an understatement as Kalen DeBoer’s crew wracked up 15 penalties for 115 yards. It is now the third game this season where Alabama has crossed the double digit penalty mark.
A large portion of the penalizations were due to mishaps offensively, especially with the snap cadence. It was clear from the first disastrous drive of the game for Alabama (who chose to receive the ball after winning the toss) that it wasn’t ready for the hostile crowd.
Jalen Milroe and the offensive line were forced to switch its cadence leading to snap infractions and false starts, all while giving Volunteer rushers a chance to jump the snap count leading to three sacks and 12 quarterback hits.
Another glaring area for the Alabama offense this season has been its ability to execute on third down and it didn’t show any signs of improvement either. After converting on 3-of-5 third down attempts in the first quarter, the Crimson Tide were 0-of-9 the rest of the game.
Sprinkle in a Milroe interception from inside the five yard line, a missed Graham Nicholson field goal and you’d have a great big bowl of missed opportunities to on the day.
But it doesn’t end there.
After seeing much malign through the first several weeks of the season, the Crimson Tide defense showed up forcing three turnovers in the first half for the offense to only follow up with no points from those takeaways.
Eventually, the unit would wear down in the second half giving up 24 points after shutting out Josh Heupel’s offense in the opening two quarters and was gashed on the ground again giving up over 200 yards on the ground.
Composure also proved to be an issue for Alabama as well. After setting up a crucial fourth and short with roughly two minutes to go in the game, wide receiver Kendrick Law was flagged with an inexcusable unnecessary roughness penalty which led to a curious fourth and long play call from offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan.
Yet through all the bone headed plays there was still opportunity to win the game, which will perhaps be the most frustrating part for Alabama fans.
Following the game DeBoer said he told his team that it had to do some “soul searching” as it heads back to Tuscaloosa this week. As it stands right now its going to take that and then some for this team to get back to what it was in Week 4.
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
