3 keys to victory for Alabama football against Tennessee

Alabama renews its football rivalry with Tennessee on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville for the 106th meeting in the Third Saturday in October.

Both Alabama and Tennessee limp in after a pair of uninspiring games each. A couple of weeks ago, this looked like a potential Top-5 matchup that would usurp the headline game of Texas and Georgia in Austin.

But then two weeks ago the Crimson Tide fell to Vanderbilt in Nashville and Tennessee slipped up in Fayetteville to Arkansas. Both teams were hoping for bounce backs last week, but instead they both had uninspiring wins over unranked opponents at home.

There's more than bragging rights and victory cigars on the line This game has the feel of a potential playoff elimination game, which only intensifies an already intense rivalry.

If Alabama is going to come out on top in one of the toughest road environments in college footbal - and avenge the loss in Neyland two years ago - then they'll need to do these three things:

3 keys to victory for Alabama:

3. Get pressure on Nico Iamaleava

In terms of raw talent, I'm not sure there's a more impressive quarterback in the nation than Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava. But he's just a redshirt freshman, and after an impressive start to the season against weak competition, SEC play has brought him back down to earth.

He posted QBR's of 76.3 and higher in all three non-conference games. In three games against SEC competition, he hasn't posted a QBR higher of 61, and in the last two games he's posted a 38.2 and and 17.5 respectively.

He's thrown one touchdown pass in SEC play, and that was in the win over Oklahoma. He's been held off the board in a loss to Arkansas and last week's overtime win over Florida.

A big reason for those struggles has been an increase in pressure. He was sacked only once in the first three games of the season. He's been sacked 10 times in the last three, and has looked like a deer in headlights when pressured.

Iamaleava has the talent to rip up a young Alabama secondary. DC Kane Wommack cannot allow him have time to carve them up. We saw last week how different the Crimson Tide defense looks when it blitzes vs. when it doesn't.

Look for the Crimson Tide to send the house early and often, disgusing different pressure packages and confusing the young QB. If they try to play it straight up like we saw against Vanderbilt, it'll be a long day.

2. Avoid three and outs on offense

Tennessee is No. 2 in the country in yards-per-play defense. They have talent all across the board and could be the best overall unit the Tide faces all year, postseason included. South Carolina's defensive line gave Alabama fits, and the Vols have the talent to do the same if Alabama doesn't clean it up.

It'll be pivotal for Alabama to avoid too many three-and-outs on offense. We all know Alabama can be explosive and score quickly, but it still remains to be seen if it can sustain drives when the big plays aren't there.

One of the keys will be to win the battle up front and run the ball effectively, particularly on early downs to keep the offense ahead of schedule. Perhaps more importantly will be to keep Jalen Milroe upright.

Milroe was sacked only three times in a three game span heading into last week, but the Gamecocks got him four times.

Tennessee doesn't have the same quality of edge rushers as South Carolina, but they aren't far behind, either.

1. Stop the Tennessee ground game

As much as it felt like Hendon Hooker torched Alabama two years ago in Knoxville, it was really Alabama's inability to stop the Tennessee ground game that prevented the defense from having much success.

Dylan Sampson has been carrying the load for the Tennessee offense with the struggles to protect Iamaleava. He's at 699 rushing yards on 5.9 yards-per-carry and has punched in 15 touchdowns on the ground.

He's rushed for at least 100 yards in every game this season and has had only one game where he didn't score multiple rushing touchdowns.

Alabama's run defense ranks 24th in the country in yards-per-rush, which is good, not great. Tennesee will be happy to be patient, gaining four or five yards at a time on the ground. Alabama needs to get Tennessee off schedule so that they are forced into third-and-longs and obvious passing downs, which will allow Wommack to send blitzes at Iamaleava that he has had trouble diagnosing.

If Alabama stops the run, they should be in good shape to walk out of Neyland puffing on cigars.