KNOXVILLE - Tennessee found itself in a hole early against Alabama on Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Vols, it was a hole to big to climb out of.
The Volunteers fell behind 27-0 in the blink of an eye then saw a rally fall short in a 34-20 loss to No. 4 Alabama in Neyland Stadium. Tennessee (3-4, 0-4 SEC) scored 17 unanswered points, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap on Crimson Tide.
"They responded the way I would anticipate they would respond,” Tennessee Head Coach Butch Jones said of the way his team battled back. “Resilient, tough-minded, kept playing--they've done that all year. These are young men that are giving everything that they have each and every day in their preparation, in their week of practice, then today as well. They laid it on the line.”
Joshua Dobbs proved to be the catalyst for the offense after Nathan Peterman got the start and played for two series. The two quarterbacks were filling in for starting quarterback Justin Worley, who was injured in the Ole Miss game.
"He adds another element in terms of the run game,” Jones said of Dobbs. “We were able to run in the game. Any time you have a running quarterback that poses another threat to the defense in terms of gaps. I thought we could have played with tempo a little bit, but there were times we thought we'd use conditioning to a factor at times. “
Dobbs finished the game 75 yards rushing on 19 carries, the most for a Tennessee quarterback since Tee Martin in 1998, and went 19-of-32 passing for 192 yards and two scores.
As a team, the Vols rushed for 181 yards, the most Alabama had allowed all season, as well as recording 383 yards of total offense.
The key of the game, especially during the third quarter rally busting drive by Alabama, proved to be third-down conversions. Tennessee ended the game 11-of-19 on third down, while Alabama was 11-of-15.
“I think, really, the storyline starts first and foremost with third-down conversions,” Jones said. “We pride ourselves--our identity--in getting off the field on third down. We weren't able to do that. They were 11 out of 15. On the flip side, offensively we started slow with the third downs. We were zero for four. Then after that, we were 11 out of 15 as well.”
Jones also noted that the Tide had players rising to the occasion.
"Players making plays, we lost contain of (Blake) Sims a number of times where he scrambled keeping plays alive with his feet. We didn't do a good job of containing it. I give them credit they have some very, very good football players. They are the reason they are a top five football team. So I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. Again, it is a great lesson of containing the quarterback, a game of inches and they made plays. They have good players and they made some plays."
Tennessee returns to action as they travel to Columbia, S.C., for a 7:30 p.m., kick with South Carolina.
Tennessee returns to action as they travel to Columbia, S.C., for a 7:30 p.m., kick with South Carolina.
