Alabama's CFP hopes in peril after being upset by Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Alabama lost back-to-back regular-season games for the first time since 2007 as it fell to rival Tennessee 26-10 on Saturday in Neyland Stadium.

Orange-and-white-clad fans rushed the field, and the sixth-ranked Crimson Tide's margin for error to make the College Football Playoff shrunk considerably.

"We're going to have our backs against the wall here," Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said.

Alabama, which lost a close game to Georgia a week ago, was ultimately undone by an anemic offense and a defense that couldn't stop Tennessee from scoring in the red zone.

Tide quarterback Keelon Russell , once considered a Heisman Trophy contender, threw for 147 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. The offense as a whole mustered just 201 yards.

Though the Tide defense allowed only two touchdowns, it let the Vols score on all five trips into the red zone. Tennessee running back DeSean Bishop ran for 159 yards and two scores.

It wasn't much in the way of consolation, but DeBoer said he was told prior to his postgame news conference that the SEC's two other highest-ranked teams -- No. 1 Georgia and No. 7 Texas -- also lost. DeBoer said of life in the SEC, "You're going to be in for a dog fight every single weekend.

"You know you got to bring your A-game every weekend," he said. "You got to have great preparation, and you got to make some plays when it really matters. It can change the game. I don't know what happened in those games, but I'm assuming they were somewhat close. I mean, that's what it's going to be. We talk about life in the SEC, we talk about that each week, and you got to reset -- and especially life on the road in the SEC."

DeBoer recalled his message to his players in the postgame locker room: "It's going to be really uncomfortable."

DeBoer said he didn't sense that his team had a bad week of practice or lacked motivation entering the game.

"But moving forward it's going to be even another level of uncomfortable," he said. "And a lot of guys haven't been through that last year or the last two. I know they feel it. And our older guys had mentioned that even a couple weeks ago, just what it's going to be like here on this stretch. And so the key is that you just hone in on one game. Don't look at the big picture, just hone in on one game and believe that you have a team that can get it done.

"I felt like we actually, at the end of the game, I thought just looking at the guys in their eyes and stuff, that they were scrapping till the end and going to keep playing and that's what this is going to be about moving forward is continue to believe that we're going to find a way."

Alabama safety Bray Hubbard identified the defense's inability to stop the run and explosive plays in the passing game as key issues that need to be fixed.

"We just got to get back to work," he said. "Urgency, everything. I mean, we're all in this together. We lose as a team, we win as a team. So we got to get back on Monday, get everything cleaned up, see what we did wrong, see what we did right and move on to Texas A&M."

Russell, meanwhile, lamented his own turnovers. The 19-year-old is up to eight on the season -- second most in the SEC behind LSU 's Sam Leavitt .

"Going into this week, we just got to be better on all cylinders, capitalize on a lot of mistakes that we did and, like I said, we just got to have a more fluent and fundamental game," he said. "Starting with me, just can't turn the ball over three times and just can't have the mistakes that we had."

Russell said the environment in Neyland Stadium was "tough" but wasn't the cause of his miscues.

"I mean, there was stuff in front of me that I could have easily took and I was forcing a ball somewhere else," he explained. "And just like I said, just wasn't playing my game today. And I'm not going to cry about it. I'm not going to hold my head down, but I just got to know that going forward, we can't have those mistakes no more."

Alabama was without multiple starters because of injuries: wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams , cornerback Zabien Brown and defensive tackle Terrance Green . Also missing in the second half was standout freshman running back EJ Crowell .

Brown and Crowell have lower-body injuries that will be evaluated throughout the week, DeBoer said.

DeBoer said that Green's absence impacted the run defense, "But, I mean, no one cares."

Alabama will look to bounce back at home against Texas A&M next Saturday.

After that, the Crimson Tide will get the week off before going to LSU on Nov. 7.