Alabama football can't afford more mistakes after plenty vs. Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. − Two days after the Alabama football team withstood a feverish second-half comeback effort by the Arkansas Razorbacks, coach Nick Saban stood in front of a microphone and relayed a question he'd just posed to his team: "Do you need to lose a game to learn?"

The answer to that question − yes − resounded loudly in the Smoky Mountains on Saturday. The loss came to pass at the hands of rival Tennessee, by a 52-49 score at Neyland Stadium. But the loss is only half of that equation, and whether the Crimson Tide learns anything from it will be revealed over the season's final five games.

The first lesson should start with penalties, which have been a major problem for the Crimson Tide, particularly in road games. As if 15 flags at Texas weren't enough, and another 10 at Arkansas didn't suffice as an encore, Alabama drew a school-record 17 penalties in Knoxville, accounting for 130 yards in step-offs.

That would include seven in the first quarter alone, which helped stake the Volunteers to a 21-7 lead. In one early sequence, an Alabama offense that ultimately racked up 569 yards managed to drive backwards, taking possession on its 14-yard line and punting from its own 2 thanks to three flags in five snaps. Alabama entered play ranked 121st out of 131 FBS teams in penalties with 49, and now with 66, the Tide is sure to sink toward the bottom of that dubious list.

The problems didn't just come in penalty form, however, and chief among other unforced errors was a miscue on a Tennessee punt, recovered by the Volunteers, that spoiled what should have been Alabama's first defensive stop and instead led to UT's fourth touchdown.

"It's not just penalties. It's 'Did I block the right guy? Did I do it the right way? Did I cover the right guy? Did I cover him the right way? Did I rush the passer the right way? Did we run the stunts to stop the run, stay in my gap?," Saban said. "All those things are little things you've got to pay attention to detail on so that you play together as a unit."

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It was a relatively quiet day for Alabama's pass rush (one sack), and in turn, that made for a noisy day in its secondary. With ample time to throw, Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker exposed the Crimson Tide defensive backfield. Meanwhile, the UT rushing attack made some noise of its own, as Volunteers running backs Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright combined for 124 yards on 24 carries. Tennessee is to be credited in this regard; the Volunteers' offense established itself as the SEC's most unstoppable attack. And it did so without its most talented wide receiver, the injured Cedric Tillman.

Whatever lessons can be learned from the loss, they must be learned quickly. Mississippi State, with one of the SEC's top quarterbacks in Will Rogers, awaits next week.

Ole Miss, now leading the SEC West Division after improving to 7-0 with a win over Auburn, now controls its own destiny in hopes of reaching the SEC title game for the first time in program history. Alabama controls its own destiny too, however. And in a rare look-ahead moment for Saban, the coach spoke to the rest of the season, not just the next game.

"I told the players that we can accomplish every goal that we had starting at the beginning of the season. There is no room for error in the West. If we win out in the West, we can win the West, and still have a chance to go to the SEC Championship Game," Saban said. "But the key to the drill is, you've got to learn from these experiences. You've got to learn from the mistakes you make."

Indeed, there were plenty of them to learn from at Neyland Stadium. But the loss doesn't make the learning a given.

And for Alabama, the margin for error has now disappeared.

Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread