KNOXVILLE — Not even Nick Saban could find much fault in this performance. His No. 2 Alabama team shelled Tennessee in a rivalry game on the road Saturday night, 29-9, and actually improved in the second half instead of letting a lead shrink.
“I’ve never been prouder of our team,” he said.
But Saban was most proud of how his team played defensively after two critical errors on special teams. In the first quarter, Alabama’s Javier Arenas fumbled Britton Colquitt’s 54-yard punt and Tennessee took over at the Alabama 5-yard line. But the Volunteers went backward 9 yards and settled for a 31-yard field goal by Daniel Lincoln to tie the score 3-3.
“That was huge. It was a mental error for us to field the ball inside the 10,” Saban said. “It was a fantastic punt, though. I’ll say that. No. 47 (Colquitt) is an outstanding punter and drove us back. I don’t think Javy really knew where he was on the field. Most of the time you line up on the 10 so you know where you’re at, but that ball was bombed.”
The drive started with a false start on Chris Scott. Montario Hardesty rushed for 3 yards to the 7, but Brandon Deaderick’s pressure forced an incomplete pass on the next play and Rashad Johnson sacked Nick Stephens to force the field-goal attempt.
“It was a big momentum boost, not just for our defense but for our offense,” Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain said. “We feel that we can control the game with our defense. We just think it’s not about what they do. It’s what we do. If we can execute, we have a chance to do good things.”
In the second quarter, Hardesty deflected P.J. Fitzgerald’s punt and the Vols took over at Alabama’s 32-yard line. Tennessee went back 2 yards this time, and Lincoln left a 51-yard field goal short.
On the drive, Lennon Creer was stopped for just a yard on first down, Stephens threw incomplete and former North Jackson High standout Ali Sharrief drilled Denarius Moore for a 3-yard loss on a third-down screen pass.
“That builds momentum and confidence for the defense,” Arenas said. “We’ve got to win in the red area. That’s what we said before the game, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Two drives in Alabama territory resulted in minus-11 yards on eight plays for the Vols.
“We’re a blue-collar team,” Saban said. “I wish we had a bunch of skill guys. There were teams we had at LSU where we had such good skill guys, there were times we didn’t play so good, but those guys made so many plays in the game.
“We’re a blue-collar team. We’ve got to play good defense; we’ve got to be able to run it; we’ve got to be able to throw it; and we did that.”
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