For the first time in nearly seven years, the Alabama Crimson Tide failed to score 20 points in a regular season game against an SEC foe. Tennessee Football held Bama to 17 point on Saturday in their 24-17 victory, only the second time since the start of the 2019 season they were held to that few points.
The other time?
It came against the South Florida Bulls on the road last year, when Nick Saban’s team had a major quarterback controversy and there was a clear player-revolt when Jalen Milroe was benched. Josh Heupel’s protege, Alex Golesh, was coaching USF at the time, and they lost 17-3.
You have to go all the way back to November of 2017 to look at the last time the Tide only scored 17 points against an SEC school in general. That was the last game of the year, against the Auburn Tigers, when a seriously injured Alabama team lost 26-14.
Simply put, Bama teams are rarely held this low.
Now, you can say it’s not the same Bama team without Saban, but Kalen DeBoer is an offensive guru. That’s his speciality, and scoring hasn’t been this team’s issue. They came in averaging 41.6 points per game, more than any Bama team since the 2020 COVID-shortened season.
That comes despite playing two of the top 20 defenses in the nation, the Wisconsin Badgers on the road and Georgia Bulldogs at home. Simply put, before this game, even with the loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores and the issues with the South Carolina Gamecocks, scoring wasn’t this team’s problem.
Now, many have said that Milroe is not a fit for DeBoer’s offense, and that’s certainly true, but he’s always been capable of breaking off one or two big plays through the air a game while moving the chains with his legs. That’s how he was able to get them to score a lot.
Here is where Tennessee Football was different than every other team that faced them. The Vols didn’t let Milroe do either of those things. Bama’s longest play was 28 yards, and as a result, Milroe looked exactly like what he is: a quarterback not fit for this offense. UT, meanwhile, has a historically great defense that showed out again.
It’s worth noting that the 17 points wasn’t flukey either. Sure, Bama had one red zone turnover. But they were held to barely over 300 yards in the game despite averaging 424 on the season. Taking away those big plays and staying at home is something no team has been able to do against them.
The question becomes this: Did Tennessee Football lay the blueprint for shutting down Alabama, or do the Vols just have that much talent on defense? Only time will tell, but this was certainly one of the most historically impressive performances by the program in a long time.
With a lockdown cornerback and a deep defensive line, we are seeing just how elite of a defensive coordinator Tim Banks can be. Don’t forget, not only does Alabama have an offensive coach, but they still have a stacked roster on both sides of the ball. That hasn’t changed.
As a result, Tennessee Football holding Alabama to 17 points without a quarterback controversy is easily one of the most impressive things any program in the nation has done to this point. The Vols doing it with an offensive coach of their own is a testament to Banks and Josh Heupel’s adaptability.
