The No. 1 seeded Alabama Crimson Tide are set to travel to Tennessee to defend their ranking in the first weekend where the BCS is officially a part of college football. Neyland Stadium isn\u2019t exactly the home-field advantage it once was when the Volunteers were steamrolling opponents left and right, so unless they can shock the nation, Alabama\u2019s title hopes should be well and alive after week eight. <\/p>\n
No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide (6-0) vs Tennessee Volunteers (3-3)<\/strong> ATS Matchup Stats<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Gambling Insight!<\/a> |\u00a0Buy Ray’s Picks!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Alabama Crimson Tide are one of only a select few in college football whose fate is truly in their own hands. Defensively, this team is as good as it gets. They allow the fewest points per game in the country (7.5), they allow the fewest passing yards in the country (125.8) and they allow the fewest rushing yards in the country (55.3). There\u2019s a common theme here, which makes it fitting that the Tide defense allows the fewest total yards of any team in the entire country (181.2).<\/p>\n This team isn\u2019t one of the clich\u00e9 defense-only teams from down South, either.<\/p>\n Their offense has taken advantage of weaker opponents thus far, and they\u2019re averaging more than 40 points per game because of it. Yes, it\u2019s true that their level of competition has been lacking, but they\u2019ve done exactly what they\u2019re supposed to do to lesser opponents\u2014they\u2019ve downright dominated them.<\/p>\n Next week begins the toughest stretch of their schedule, so as long as they don\u2019t get caught looking ahead, they should escape Knoxville unscathed.<\/p>\n The rivalry between the Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Volunteers is a rich one in the SEC, but the team from Knoxville hasn\u2019t been able to step up the past two seasons. The team has yet to face a defense with the prowess of Alabama this season, which makes it hard to believe this year will break that trend.<\/p>\n The Crimson Tide have been shutting down opponents all season long, so the Volunteers are going to need serious production on the offensive side of the ball. Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray has thrown six interceptions in three SEC contests. The team can\u2019t afford to make those kinds of mistakes, as Alabama corner Dee Miller has two interceptions already this season.<\/p>\n The Volunteers toughest defensive opponent to date has been the Florida Gators. The Gators are allowing just 12.3 points per game, yet the Volunteers were able to put up 20 points. The problem, however, is that they allowed 37 points to Florida\u2019s offense, and the game was never really in question once the second half began. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n The only way this game seemingly swings in Tennessee\u2019s favor is if Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron turns out to be more banged up than some believe him to be. He\u2019s playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the country right now, but if he hurts his team, it will hurt their chances of coming out ahead in the end.<\/p>\n That being said, Tide coach Nick Saban knows what he\u2019s doing out on the field. If McCarron is good enough to play, he\u2019s good enough to beat the Volunteers and keep Alabama\u2019s BCS title hopes alive.<\/p>\n O\/U Pick: Over 56 Crimson Tide vs Volunteers NCAA Football Spread\/Handicapping The No. 1 seeded Alabama Crimson Tide are set to travel to Tennessee to defend their ranking in the first weekend where the BCS is officially a part of college football. Neyland Stadium isn\u2019t exactly the home-field advantage it once was when the Volunteers were steamrolling opponents left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":24135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[39626,37254,18930,324,327,37256,766,769,3311],"class_list":["post-56281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-39626","tag-alabama-crimson-tide-vs-tennessee-volunteers","tag-alabama-vs-tennessee","tag-college-football-odds","tag-college-football-predictions","tag-crimson-tide-vs-volunteers","tag-ncaa-football-lines","tag-ncaa-football-picks","tag-week-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56281"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56286,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56281\/revisions\/56286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Saturday October 20, 2012<\/strong>
\n Neyland Stadium, KNOXVILLE, TN<\/strong>
\n 7:00 PM ET<\/strong>
\n Moneyline: Alabama -1400, Tennessee +900 from Sportsbook.ag<\/a>
\n<\/strong> Spread: Alabama -20.5<\/strong>
\n O\/U: 56<\/strong><\/p>\nAlabama Crimson Tide<\/h3>\n
CLICK TO GRAB OUR Expert CFB Picks for 2012 NCAA FOOTBALL Betting!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n
Tennessee Volunteers<\/h3>\n
Trends<\/h3>\n
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\nScore Prediction: Alabama 45 \u2013 Tennessee 17<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"