Went to the game

Here's my impressions of last night's game, from being in attendance.  This was my first time going to Neyland Stadium, and I'd have to say its a nice facility.  The bleacher seats are pretty much the same as you'd find find anywhere in the SEC, nothing special.  Their jumbotron was nice, not huge but still got the job done.  Also, they apparently expanded the walkways this year, as several people pointed out how much wider they were.  Concessions were far cheaper than what you'd find in Tuscaloosa. 

The fans on the way in were very cordial, and that seemed to have as much to do with most of the fans:

Accepting they aren't a good team this year, and will go to a low level bowl if they even manage to get to 6 wins

Being resentful of their head coach

Already looking forward to basketball season

However, they had a ceremony honoring the national championship team of 1998 beforehand, and the crowd was pumped throughout the first half and the beginning of the second.  It was one of the louder stadiums I've ever been in.  Even with the crowd probably being 25% or more Tide fans, compared to a typical 10% or less allotment that a visiting team gets. 

As far as the game itself, I was very impressed with the Tide Defense.  Twice Tennessee had great field position as a result of poor Special Teams play by Alabama and they walked away with 3 points total from it.  The run defense in particular didn't miss a beat with Terence Cody out.  While the offense struggled in putting the ball in the end zone, Leigh Tiffin was perfect, both on field goal attempts and on kickoffs.  Special Teams play has to be the big concern on this Tide team.  It seems as if one hole gets plugged each week and another one springs.  Tennessee did seem as if they got some bad calls, particularly on the offensive pass interference call at the end of the first half and the no fumble call early in the second.  However, this was a bad team regardless, there's a reason they lost 29-9 and are now 3-5 on the season. 

My favorite moment of the night was the Rammer Jammer cheer to close the game.  I'm not a fan of that song being played in most situations, when the game isn't really a "big" game or we didn't actually beat the hell out of them.  However, last night was a physical beatdown.  And the 25,000 strong Tide fans (which was about half of the fans remaining at that point) were LOUD when we sang it.

Lastly, one enjoyable moment was this older gentleman who was particularly irate and yelled at us Tide fans in his section "You guys better enjoy it because you won't have Fat Phil to whip up on next year!"