Mark WiedmerKNOXVILLE - So much for fresher legs - and momentum. And seeing what might happen in this 101st meeting between the college football teams of Alabama and Tennessee if the Volunteers could just force Crimson Tide sophomore quarterback Tua Tagovailoa finally to take so much as a single fourth-quarter snap.
OK, so that last scenario might still be Tagovailoa's kryptonite. But for at least one more Alabama game, we're again left to wonder if Tagovailoa can be worn down, because for the eighth time in eight games he sat out not only the fourth period, but also the final 12 minutes and 53 seconds of the third. He departed after his fourth touchdown pass Saturday afternoon put the nation's No. 1 team on top 51-14.
That it ended a little less than two quarters later with Bama ahead 58-21 is pretty strong proof that it is really, really good and Tennessee remains something of a work in progress seven games into former Tide defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt's first season as a head coach at any level.
"Going into it, we knew we'd have to play a perfect game," said Pruitt, whose Vols are 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the Southeastern Conference heading to next Saturday's game at South Carolina. "They lined up and whipped us between the whistles the whole time."
Not that Bama hasn't wreaked similar havoc against every team it has played this season. The Tide's closest win is by 22 points against No. 17 Texas A&M. They've failed to score as many as 45 only once, that in last weekend's 39-10 win over Missouri, which hung 65 on Memphis on Saturday. The 58 points against the Vols is the most a visiting team has scored in Neyland since leather helmets disappeared.
Nor is it just the Bama offense that obliterates foes.
"We had a goal to win the second half," Pruitt said after his team trailed 42-14 at the break. "But we come out there and Ty Chandler doesn't fair-catch the second-half kickoff (which gave the Vols the ball on their own 3). Then we step on our quarterback's foot and get a safety. Bad start to the second half."
Though this particular Third Saturday in October wasn't a sellout (97,087 was the announced attendance), and many of those who did visit Neyland Stadium were dressed in crimson, there was some reason to hope before this game began.
For starters, this was Alabama's eighth straight game. Though it certainly has cruised to date - its average margin of victory entering this one was a whopping 38.4 points - Tennessee had an open date two weeks prior. That revived energy had helped stun Auburn last weekend on the Plains.
The hope was that it might pay similar dividends against the Tide.
Instead, as Vols defensive back Nigel Warrior said of the Bama bulldozer: "You can make something happen when you've got great weapons, and they've got them."
Slightly. In becoming the first program to whip Tennessee in 12 straight football games, Bama more than doubled the Vols in points, first downs (30-13) and total yards (545-258). The Tide's average scoring drive covered 60 yards, with an average drive time of 2:38.
"Tua brings a whole new dimension," said Tennessee senior defensive lineman Kyle Phillips, who backed up last week's SEC defensive lineman award against Auburn by returning an interception 27 yards for a touchdown against Bama reserve quarterback Jalen Hurts.
"He can really kill you with his arm as well as his feet. It makes it tough to stop them."
With Bama up 28-0 before the end of the first quarter, blown minds began to wonder if anyone can stop the Tide. Questions such as "Is this the best college football team ever?" filled the air, and at least where their offense is concerned, it is a legitimate question.
"They're very good offensively," said the defensive guru Pruitt. "They've got big men up front. They've got good tight ends, they've got a trigger puller and they're explosive at wide receiver. If you're even with them in the box, they're going to beat you in the run game. If you play them one-on-one, they're going to try to throw their RPO (run-pass-option) stuff."
And now the Tide get their bye week before visiting fifth-ranked LSU on Nov. 3. If that contest produces a Bama victory that's remotely as dominant as its first eight wins, the best-ever talk isn't all that outrageous.
Yet overmatched as the Vols looked through most of this one, Pruitt didn't blame it all on a shortage of talent. Some of it, but not all of it.
"You call a corner blitz, and we tippytoe in there and nobody blocks us, and they throw a 50-yard touchdown," Pruitt groused. "I bet you when they call a corner blitz, I bet you their corner didn't tippytoe up in there."
Yet he also grudgingly admitted of his team's talent gap with the Tide: "Maybe today they wasn't good enough."
Bama's been good enough over Saban's 11 completed seasons in Tuscaloosa to have won five national titles. In only one of those years (2009) have the Tide finished the season undefeated.
"We have been 8-0 at this point a few times," the Tide coach said early Saturday night. "It's all about how you finish."
But when you start off leading 28-0, it's a whole lot easier to finish on top.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.