KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Saturday’s 48-17 victory over Tennessee serves as little indication, but at some point this season Alabama will need to rely on its defense.
Mac Jones isn’t slowing down from his Heisman pace, and Najee Harris continues to find the end zone at an amazing rate. The Crimson Tide even kept rolling after losing its leading receiver. However, eventually this well-oiled machine is bound to stall — at least temporarily.
It has to, right?
The good news for Alabama is that if its offense does experience any future hiccups, things are beginning to look a little brighter on the other side of the ball.
After shutting out Georgia in the second half the week before, the Tide turned in its best defensive performance of the season on Saturday, holding the Volunteers to 302 total yards.
There were a couple forgettable moments including a pair of long passing touchdowns and some missed tackles. Although, for the most part, Alabama’s defense is leaving Knoxville feeling a lot better about itself.
“I thought the defense played better tonight," Nick Saban said following the game. “This is probably the best we’ve played, even though there are some plays in there you could be critical of — and I’m sure we’ll do everything we can to get them fixed. But I was kind of proud of the way the guys played. They played with a little more confidence and were pretty aggressive overall.”
Alabama held Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano to 13 of 24 passing for 162 yards and two touchdowns and continued his string of costly turnovers with Malachi Moore’s strip-and-score touchdown in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Tide limited the Volunteers to just 3.7 yards per carry and did not allow a run longer than 15 yards. That’s quite the turnaround from earlier this month when Alabama gave up 7.5 yards per play in a 63-48 shootout win over Ole Miss.
"We have held ourselves to a higher standard," cornerback Patrick Surtain II said. "We knew Ole Miss wasn't our best performance and we have learned from that game as the weeks have gone on. Our role is to continue focusing on making plays, communicating and flying around."
Alabama has a new punter
Alabama once again has a Scott booting balls at punter. Charlie Scott, the brother of Alabama’s all-time leading punter JK Scott, made his Crimson Tide debut against Tennessee.
While it wasn’t quite like old times, the younger brother did a passable job, averaging 34.5 yards on his two punts while landing both of them inside the 20. There’s room for improvement, but for the most part Saban was impressed.
Premium subscribers continue reading here
