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The Rivalry is Back: Vols Upset Bid Falls Short

Submitted by Jim Boofer on October 24, 2009 - 6:52pm.

Comments Below: 2

Dixie's great football war was just that today. This game reminded me of so many great UT-Bama games in the past. Field position, kicking game, power football, and 2 teams that gave all to win. Such is the Tennessee-Alabama series.

Alabama is better than Tennessee, but not that much better. Bama had superior QB play, McElroy was not spectacluar, but he was smart and did what he had to do to win the ballgame. One could argue however, that Crompton was clutch late in the game and gave his team a chance to win.

Another obvious advantage the Tide has was at the offensive line position. They were able to push the Tennessee D off the ball for

the entire first half, and in the 4th quarter when they had to do it.

All those yards, all those plays, all that time of possession, and no points until the end of the game. That is the story line that will haunt the Vols for some time to come. 2 blocked field goals and another one missed. You can truly chalk this one up as one that Tennessee let get away. Of course, rightfully so, Alabama fans will say that they did what they had to do to win the football game.

Very disappionting loss for Tennessee, the Vols certainly played well enough on defense to win the game, but the offense couldn't do enough which was my fear going into the ballgame.

Key plays that really cost the Vols included the penalty on Stocker, the holding penalty on Sullins, and the 2 blocked field goals. The 2 long drives the Vols put together against the Tide defense were impressive, but the Vols could not put points on the board and it cost them the game.

A 12 play 6 1/2 minute drive ended without points and a 13 play 8 minute drive yielded no points in the second half.

The Good:

The Tennessee defense had a good game plan and they executed as well as you could expect. Defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin did a great job of making defensive adjustments throughout the ballgame. The defense also gave the Vols possession with a fumble recovery when it looked like the Tide would salt it away. Tennessee did not allow the Crimson Tide into the end zone all day, great effort and coaching defensively.

Tennessee actually out-gained Alabama in total offense. The Vols fought their way to 341 yards while limiting the Tide to a total of 256 yards. Of course you might consider that a negative since the Vols were unable to capitalize for the victory.

Jonathon Crompton was good enough to win today in my opinion, he was 21-37 for 265 yards and a touchdown. He also threaded the needle of five passes against tight press coverage. Nice game and good leadership.

Penalties were a huge factor. I'm kind of at a loss explaining how Tennessee, one of the fewest penalized teams in the league gets hit with 8 penalties for 136 yards while the Tide is only whistled for 2 penalties covering 30 yards. Not sure I understand what happened there.

You have to admire Wes Brown, he is really gutting it out with gritty play. Rico McCoy was in double digits in tackles again, and Jackson did a fantastic job covering the middle of the field preventing the big play to Julio Jones.

The Bad:

Unfortunately, the Sullins brothers are not SEC material. They play hard and really give great effort, but they would not be starting for any other SEC other than maybe Vanderbilt. They simply could not handle the middle of the Alabama defensive line, of course, not many offensive lineman have handled those guys this year. Both blocked field goals were the direct result of the middle of Tennessee's offensive line getting mashed right up the middle.

Tennessee is in desperate need of some help in the kicking game, period, enough said. How many times do we have to watch our kickers have to squib the ball away from return guys because we can't cover a kick?

It has been rumored that Daniel Lincoln has been playing with a pulled quad muscle, but you can't blame his poor play on that today. Both blocked field goals were very low and easily blocked. I never felt that he was going to hit the field goal to win even if it wasn't blocked.

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Poor coaching at the end of

Submitted by Guest (not verified) on October 26, 2009 - 12:50am.

Poor coaching at the end of the game to let the clock run down instead of trying to get closer. Lincoln had already missed a long field goal attempt. Plus, he already had one blocked. By choosing to kick the ball just within Lincoln's possible range, the coach knew he had to kick it low to get it the distance yet he didn't try to get the ball any closer. Plus, what about the poor officiating for failing to call a penalty on the 'Bama player that took off his helmet after he blocked the kick? The ball was still live. Too bad the Vols didn't see where the ball had landed before a 'Bama player finally picked it up.

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