Alabama’s Landon Collins (26) chases Tennessee’s Jalen Hurd (1) in their game Saturday, Oct. 2014, at Neyland Stadium.KNOXVILLE – Spotting any team a 27-point lead is never a good idea.
Letting the fourth-ranked team in the country run out to such a wide margin might be an even worse one.
Though Tennessee turned what looked like an ugly blowout into a game in the third quarter Saturday night, the Volunteers were unable to overcome Alabama jumping out to a 27-0 lead in the game’s first 18 minutes and fell to the Crimson Tide for an eighth consecutive year in a 34-20 loss at sold-out Neyland Stadium.
“We didn’t let that faze us,” Tennessee tailback Jalen Hurd said of Alabama’s blazing start. “We pulled it together. We knew what we needed to do, and we went out there and we did it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, but we’re going to fix our few mistakes.”
Tennessee’s struggling offense got a spark from quarterback Josh Dobbs, who replaced starter Nathan Peterman after two series as the Vols (3-5, 0-4 SEC) played without starting quarterback Justin Worley. He had left last week’s loss at Ole Miss early with a shoulder injury.