Tennessee Football: Vols not getting blown out by Alabama, yet

There’s no such thing as moral victories, but Tennessee football has somehow managed to stay within striking distance of Alabama after the first half.

Alabama entered Saturday’s Week 8 contest against Tennessee as 37 point favorites. The Volunteers hadn’t scored a touchdown in two weeks so their chances of upsetting the Crimson Tide were scant from the start. However, after two quarters of play, the Vols are within striking distance of the No. 1 team in the nation.

The game began just as expected. Tennessee went three-and-out and punted to the Tide. They took over at the 37-yard line and drove the remainder of the field on 12 plays to take a 7-0 lead on a Bo Scarbrough fourth down 1-yard touchdown run. The Vols followed up with another punt and this one looked to be sliding away. But it didn’t.

Instead Alabama and Tennessee traded punts for a few drives before Alabama once again began a long march down the field. Scarbrough once again punched it in on fourth down from the 1-yard line to give the Tide a 14-0 lead. Damien Harris would add one more touchdown to give the Tide their 21-0 halftime lead.

When the half time whistle sounded the Vols had been outgained 252 yards to 66. They were 1-of-6 on third down, averaging 1.8 yards per carry and lost the time of possession battle, with just under 13 minutes to the Tides’ 17+ minutes. But even with all those odds against them, the Vols were within three scores of a team expected to blow them out by five touchdowns.

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Butch Jones very well might be coaching for his job, and anything short of a win might earn him the door as early as Saturday night. Yet keeping the Volunteers in the game to this point deserves some credit. He did give his team credit for winning the “championship of life” last year, so perhaps he is chalking this one up as a moral victory after all.