By Al Lesar

When Alabama’s Zabien Brown took an interception 99 yards for a touchdown to end the first half Saturday night, the trajectory of two football teams changed dramatically.

Tennessee never recovered from the blunder. A 16-point halftime deficit, caused by a 14-point swing on that one play, eroded into a 37-20 loss to Alabama.

Saddled with a 5-2 record (2-2 in the Southeastern Conference),l the 17th-ranked Volunteers are teetering dangerously on a season that could unravel. Meanwhile, Alabama (6-1, 4-0) won for the sixth straight time after a season-opening loss to Florida State that gets harder and harder to understand as the season wears on.

The challenge this week will be to put the pieces together in time for Saturday night’s game at Kentucky. The Wildcats took Texas to overtime before falling, 16-13.

The good

The good to come from the loss at Alabama was proof that the Vols defense could stop the run. The Crimson Tide’s run game was hardly feared coming into the contest. But when Tennessee limited Alabama to just 120 rushing yards on 32 carries — and 47 of those came on three plays (two were end around plays) — ‘Bama was pretty much one-dimensional.

The bad

But that one dimension was pretty good.

The plan to knock Alabama’s elite quarterback Ty Simpson off his game was to make him uncomfortable in the pocket. The actual execution was that, for the most part, he was right at home with chaos going on all around him.

Simpson completed 19 of 29 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns. Receiver Ryan Williams, healthy for the first time this season, caught all five passes thrown in his direction for 87 yards.

Tennessee had nobody in the defensive secondary that could keep up with him.

The ugly

What was Tennessee coach Josh Heupel thinking when his offense was lined up tight, with no receivers flanked out wide, in a situation that even casual fans knew called for a pass?

The ball was on ‘Bama’s 1-yard line. Second down. Nine seconds on the clock before halftime. Tennessee had no timeouts. An unsuccessful run and the half is over. An incomplete pass, the clock stops and the Vols live to play another snap.

TV commentators repeated ad nauseam that more than 90% of Tennessee’s plays inside the 5-yard line this season have been runs. 

A pass to tight end Miles Kintselman was called. He came out of the backfield and peeled off toward the end zone. Joey Aguilar threw behind him, in perfect position for Brown to snatch it and go the distance.

Now what?

Aguilar seemed to be pestered by a sore neck most of the game. He was hit high on a run, not learning his lesson from last week’s scare late in the Arkansas game.

How he recovers from that will go a long way toward how things play out at Kentucky this week. 

There is still an opportunity for the Vols to find their way into the College Football Playoff, but it starts with winning out. That isn’t going to be easy.

Kentucky is a bitter rival. Oklahoma has been ranked all year. The last time Tennessee won at Florida was 2003, even though Billy Napier won't be around to coach. And Vanderbilt looks really good with Diego Pavia leading the way. Even winning out might need some help from other teams.

It wouldn’t take much for this season to completely fall apart.

And if it does, the first crack in foundation was that pick-six.