Rapid Reaction: Alabama continues hot streak, dispatches rival Tennessee
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Get out your cigars, Alabama fans.
Alabama football is red hot and showing no signs of cooling down any time soon. The Crimson Tide are now 6-1 on the season after beating rival Tennessee 37-20 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Alabama extended its lead in the all-time series vs. Tennessee and prevented the Vols from beating Bama in back-to-back games for the first time since 2003-2004.
This one was pretty close to start, but there was one major factor that separated the Vols and Crimson Tide right from the jump; Alabama played a considerably cleaner game than the Volunteers. Pre-snap penalties, drops and simply poor coaching decisions plagued the Vols from start to finish.
A crucial moment in this one came at the end of the first half, with Tennessee facing 2nd and Goal at the Alabama 1-yard line trailing 16-7. Instead of punching it in for a score that would have made it 16-14, Alabama’s Zabien Brown jumped in front of a telegraphed pass by Joey Aguilar and took it the distance, giving the Crimson Tide a 23-7 lead at the halftime break.
Alabama had little trouble moving the ball in the second half and scored 2 more touchdowns to put the game to bed. Ty Simpson had an especially strong outing, throwing for 253 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 19/29 completions. Helping his strong day, Germie Bernard and Ryan Williams turned in great outings, combining for 10 receptions and 147 receiving yards.
As mentioned above, Alabama is as hot as they come right now. The Crimson Tide boast wins over Georgia, Vanderbilt, Mizzou and now Tennessee heading into next weekend’s matchup against South Carolina.
Alabama 37, Tennessee 20
Here’s the Alabama-Tennessee box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Ty Simpson vs Joey Aguilar
Alabama QB Ty Simpson entered as a Heisman favorite. Here’s a statistical breakdown of how Simpson performed against Tennessee counterpart Joey Aguilar:
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
