# 2 Alabama Blows Out Vols in Knoxville 29-9

Before the game, I had many conversations with fellow Tide fans and the consensus in each one of those was that if we did not turn the ball over and give points to Tennessee, we would win the game. That said, you can imagine how excited I was from my top row seat (literally, I was sitting on the top row) when Javier Arenas fumbled a punt and gave Tennessee the ball on the 5 in the first quarter.

# 2 Alabama (8-0, 5-0) held the the Big Orange to a FG on that possession and dominated the game from that point in route to a 29-9 victory over Tennessee (3-5, 1-4) in Neyland Stadium Saturday night. It marks the second straight victory for the Tide over Phil Fulmer's bunch as the Tide routed the Vols 41-14 last year in Tuscaloosa.

QB John Parker Wilson did a great job of finding open receivers all night finishing 17-24 for 188 yards and added a rushing TD. He was efficient and did not put Alabama in a bad position at any point during the game. Wilson's favorite target was freshman phenomenon Julio Jones who finished the game with 6 receptions for 103 yards, which equated to a 17.3 average per catch.

If you read Inside the Tide earlier in the week you learned that Tennessee safety Eric Berry was the only Vol who would probably start for Alabama and that theory rang true Saturday night. As the game progressed it was evident that Alabama just simply had better, stronger, faster players. The only dark spot on the evening was special teams play which produced the above mentioned Arenas fumble and a partially blocked punt that put Tennessee in another good spot to score before half, but a combination of good defense and Vol penalties led to a missed FG attempt as the first half ended.

For the first time in the last few outings, the Crimson Tide dominated the second half outscoring Tennessee 16-6 and the six the Vols scored were garbage points with Alabama leading 29-3 at the end of the game against our second team defense. Alabama opened the second half with a FG and then drove down the field later in the 3rd quarter and scored on a QB sneak from Wilson. The game went downhill from there for the Vols as Alabama cruised to an easy win.

Alabama now turns its attention to next week's non-conference homecoming game against the Arkansas State Indians. With LSU's loss at home to Georgia yesterday, Alabama now just has to go 2-1 in its remaining three SEC games against LSU, Mississippi St., and Auburn to move on to the SEC Championship Game as the SEC West Champion.