With less than 3 minutes left in Saturday’s game, Tennessee athletic director Danny White was on the Neyland Stadium Jumbotron asking fans not to storm the field.

Good luck with that, Danny.

When the Volunteers’ 26-10 conquest became official, giving them their third straight home win over the Crimson Tide, the message was forgotten.

About half of the 102,000 fans funneled onto the turf with cigars in hand. It was a glorious moment for anyone wearing orange. Everyone in that mass of humanity seemed to be taking a selfie to preserve the moment for posterity.

This was as good a game as Tennessee has played in a couple years. The defense was suffocating, as coach Josh Heupel said post-game. The offense was efficient, giving Mike Matthews opportunities to gobble yards on short passes.

Even the major gaffe of the game, freshman Brayden Rouse kicked a live ball on a punt return allowing ‘Bama to recover deep in Tennessee territory, was reconciled with a Dejuan Lane fumble recovery.

The overriding factor in the game was that Tennessee dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

The Crimson Tide chose to bottle up defensive lineman Xavier Gilliam, who had just one tackle, but it opened up Tyree Weathersby (4 tackles, 2 sacks) and Jeremiah Telander (4 tackles, 2 sacks). The Vols generated 10 tackles for loss.

One amazing stat: Of Alabama’s first seven plays, only one went for positive yards.

On the offensive side, Tennessee yielded just one sack and two tackles for loss. Keeping quarterback George MacIntyre upright through most of the game is a priority. Not sure the slender 6-foot-6 MacIntyre could survive 10 sacks like Faizon Brandon battled through against Texas.

The scariest part of the game for the Vols offensive line happened early in the second quarter when left tackle David Sanders Jr. went down with a right leg injury. It looked bad. Even his parents were summoned to the injury tent. However, by the third quarter, he was back on the field and was effective.

None of the celebration would have happened without DeSean Bishop. The sophomore running back, with 159 rushing yards on 32 carries, gave a component to the offense that ‘Bama had to respect on every snap. That gave MacIntyre an extra split second to survey his options down the field whenever he chose to pass.

How this game figures into the big picture of the season is still too early to tell.

For at least another week, in the crazy Southeastern Conference, the Vols can strut around as the No. 11 team in the country (I think that’s a little low) and be considered as a legitimate College Football Playoff contender. Good feelings in the SEC are fleeting. Just ask Georgia. And ‘Bama. And Texas. And LSU.

Sudden rises in stock are often followed by harsh downturns. It was 2022 when Tennessee headed to Columbia with a 9-1 record, ranked sixth in the country, and a shoe-in for the playoffs. Then came a 63-38 beat-down by the Gamecocks that ended all sorts of dreams and plans.

Given the current state of the SEC, who knows? USC has had home losses to Mississippi State and Kentucky, as well as faltering on the road at Alabama. Then there’s doubling up Florida in the swamp.

Hardly anything seems to make sense this season.

However, for The Third Saturday in October, all the tumblers fell into place.

Hope you enjoyed the stogie.

Source: Yahoo Sports