What We Learned from Alabama's Anemic Loss at Tennessee: Tide Takeaways

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.–– Alabama now finds itself at a crossroads after a 26-10 loss at Tennessee on Saturday night. For the first time since 2007, the Crimson Tide has lost back-to-back games in the regular season.

With a 5-2 (3-2 SEC) record, every game from here on out is an elimination game. Alabama can't afford to put up another performance like it did against the Volunteers.

The Crimson Tide turned it over four times and never led on an abysmal day for the offense. Despite the loss to Georgia last week, the vibes were still pretty positive surrounding Alabama. The same can't be said after the performance in Knoxville.

Alabama will have to show major improvements if it still wants to be a College Football Playoff team. Here are five of my biggest takeaways from Saturday's loss for the latest edition of Tide Takeaways:

Early turnovers, bad decisions plague Keelon Russell's day

This was a game where Keelon Russell was going to have to make plays. He was missing his leading wide receiver in Ryan Coleman-Williams and starting center Racin Delgatty while going up against one of the best defenses and pass rushes in the country.

Unfortunately for Alabama, this was a game where Russell made more plays for the other team. Alabama's sophomore quarterback fumbled on the Crimson Tide's first offensive possession, giving the Vols the ball at the Alabama 19. Tennessee had already built up a 9-0 lead in the first quarter when Russell threw his first interception since Week 2. He threw one more interception on Alabama's final drive that sealed the victory for the Volunteers.

"We can’t do what we did today," Russell said after the game. "Turned the ball over three, four times. And me, I had a horrible game. I put it all on myself, couldn’t even lead my guys down the field past the 50. I had careless turnovers. The last one was just like, ‘What the hell is Keelon doing?’ We just can’t do what we do moving forward.”

Tennessee's defense, especially up front, is good, and Alabama's offensive line wasn't giving Russell a lot of time to throw the ball. Even when he did have time to throw, he was often making the wrong decision and holding on to the ball for too long.

Bryce Young and Tua Tagovailoa somewhat warped the perception for Alabama fans of what a second-year quarterback can step in and do right away. Russell has all the talent in the world, and he's flashed it multiple times this season, but he still has a lot of growing to do. That will take time, but he's also going to have to continue to grow up fast.

Defense bent, but finally broke in the fourth quarter

The Alabama defense is the only reason the Crimson Tide was in the game until the fourth quarter. Kane Wommack's "Swarm D" came up with multiple red zone stops after critical mistakes by the offense to hold Tennessee to field goals.

Tennessee only had 12 points and 165 yards at halftime, but by the fourth quarter, it became too much for the Alabama defense.

After another three-and-out by the Crimson Tide offense, Tennessee got the ball back with 12:49 to go, holding a 19-10 lead. The Volunteers proceeded to go on a 15-play, 72-yard drive that milked 9:32 off the clock, capped by Dylan Sampson's second touchdown of the game. The score put Tennessee up 26-10 with just over three minutes remaining, effectively ending any slim chances Alabama had of making a comeback.

"You’ve just got to stop them," Alabama linebacker Luke Metz said after the game. "I feel like we had multiple opportunities to stop them, and we didn’t do that. I felt like we did that pretty good in the first half, but we’ve got to finish. We say we’re a fourth quarter team, and then we go out there and do that. It’s just unacceptable.”

The ineptitude of the offense put too much pressure on the defense. However, the defense also couldn't get off the field when it needed to in the fourth quarter.

Ryan Grubb needs to make things easier for offense on fourth down

Despite how poorly the first half went on offense for the Crimson Tide, Alabama only trailed by two points at halftime. The offense got the ball to start the second half with the opportunity to take the lead and put the negativity behind it.

It looked like Alabama was going to do just that. The Crimson Tide moved 35 yards down the field into Tennessee territory on nine plays. Alabama was facing its second fourth-and-1 of the game, and for the second time, the offense did not convert.

Tennessee responded with a 60-yard touchdown drive to push the lead back to nine points at 19-10, and Alabama never scored again.

Alabama similarly had a chance to seize momentum in the first half. While trailing 12-7, the Tide got a gift when Tennessee muffed a punt, and Alabama recovered at the Volunteer 23-yard line. Three plays later, Alabama faced a fourth-and-1 from the 14.

The coaches opted to go for it instead of kicking the field goal. The play got blown up immediately, and Daniel Hill fumbled. Both failed fourth downs were huge missed opportunities to swing the momentum of the game in Alabama's favor.

I have never been a playcaller, but with all the weapons Alabama has on offense, starting with Russel's running ability, the Crimson Tide should be able to pick up one yard in critical situations. Don't overthink it. Let Russell keep the ball for the first down.

Alabama has lacked an identity on offense the last two games. The execution hasn't been great, but it all starts with Ryan Grubb as the offensive coordinator. He has to do the things to put his personnel in more comfortable positions to effectively move the ball down the field.

The Crimson Tide was 2-for-13 on third down and 1 of 3 on fourth down. That is not going to be a recipe for success in any game, much less on the road at a place like Tennessee.

"Struggled to sustain anything, keeping drives and continuity there," DeBoer said. "A penalty or came up short on a couple fourth downs. You're going to have to find a way to get some explosives against a front like that, and we struggled to do that."

Neyland is becoming Alabama's new house of horrors

For most of Nick Saban's tenure, Alabama really struggled to play at Auburn in Jordan-Hare Stadium. There was no place where he lost more during his 17 seasons than Auburn. Even when the Crimson Tide won in Jordan-Hare, games often came down to the wire.

Alabama's now traded one rivalry struggle for another as the Tide lost its third straight trip to Neyland Stadium on Saturday night. Each game has been lost in a different way, with 2022 being a 52-49 shootout. The 2024 matchup was a back-and-forth game in which Alabama blew a fourth-quarter lead to lose 24-17, and the Tide was dominated from start to finish this Saturday, losing to Tennessee by double digits for the first time since 2001.

All three losses have resulted in subsequent field stormings. This matchup has always meant a lot to the two fanbases, but Tennessee fans still have a lot of pent-up anger after losing to the Crimson Tide 15 seasons in a row from 2007-2021. That emotion is evident and on display from before kickoff until well after the final whistle.

The good news for Alabama is that the Tide now has two whole years before it has to return to Neyland, but the sounds of the third-down "Spooky Rocky Top" will be popping up in their nightmares until then.

Alabama desperately needs to make it through Texas A&M game and into bye week to get key players healthy

This is not an excuse for the loss or why Alabama lost, but the absence of three starters was heavily felt in the loss on Saturday night. On top of Coleman-Williams, Delgatty and Terrance Green already being ruled out before the game, defensive back and team captain Zabien Brown, plus running back EJ Crowell were both left with "lower extremity" injuries during the game.

Alabama's receivers behind Coleman-Williams did not step up without him, Rico Scott probably had the best performance, but he was targeted 11 times and came away with just four catches for 54 yards, plus he had a few critical drops.

The Crimson Tide run defense takes a big hit without Green. When Green can't play, it forces a guy like Devan Thompkins to play inside more, which then limits Alabama's pass rush. (For the second straight game, Alabama only recorded one sack.)

"Well, he's definitely a difference maker, but we also have other guys that I feel can get the job done," DeBoer said of Green. "And whether it's just guys having to play more snaps, and TG was playing a lot of snaps for us, but no one cares. We have told the guys that you know no one cares. We said this from, the beginning of the season; it doesn't matter if you have guys dinged up. There's a score that's getting printed. There's a score that happened tonight, and every team is going through the same stuff."

At this point in an SEC season, there will always be players dealing with bumps and bruises, but Alabama has key starters dealing with significant injuries.

Coming into the season, with the way Alabama's schedule was set up, going 2-2 in the month of October wasn't entirely unexpected. Losing back-to-back games obviously wasn't part of the plan. Getting a win at home against Texas A&M and then having a week off to try to get some players back as healthy as possible would put Alabama in a pretty good spot heading into the critical month of November.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok for the latest Alabama news.