ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Those second-half blues that had made Alabama coach Nick Saban even grumpier than usual the last three games went the way of Tennessee's struggling football team Saturday night in Neyland Stadium.

Down the tubes. In the tank. Out to sea.

Well, you get the idea.

	Dale Zanine/US Presswire
	The Crimson Tide on Saturday night played arguably their most complete game of the season.

Alabama, playing its most complete football game of the season, looked like a team on a collision course with a championship. Tennessee looked like a team on a collision course with a complete overhaul of its program.

"This is the best we've played, in my opinion, since the Clemson game," said Saban, whose Crimson Tide turned it on in the second half and buried the Vols, 29-9. "We played a complete game. Even Georgia, we played a great half, but we didn't play a very good second half. This was a complete game by our team, and it certainly needed to be, because I have a tremendous amount of respect for their team."

Alabama (8-0, 5-0 SEC) had been outscored 61-13 in the second half of its last three games. And nobody is more hung up on finishing games the right way than Saban.

Well, the Tide didn't just finish this game. They trampled the Vols in the second half after leading 13-3 at the half and can now wrap up the Western Division title by winning at LSU on Nov. 8. More importantly, the Tide now have a two-game cushion in the West.

"There have been too many times this year at halftime where we were like, 'OK, we've got this game won,'" Alabama cornerback Javier Arenas said. "We didn't feel like that at halftime tonight. We came out and played like we were 14 points down. That's the way we're going to play the rest of this year. You live and you learn."

The Vols (3-5, 1-4 SEC) were all but done after they couldn't score a touchdown from the Alabama 5-yard line after Arenas fumbled a punt in the first quarter. Typical of their struggles on offense all season, offensive tackle Chris Scott was called for a false start on first down.

That's all the ammunition the Alabama defense needed. Three plays later, senior safety Rashad Johnson flew in to sack Tennessee quarterback Nick Stephens on third down, and the Vols had to settle for a field goal.

"That's a big momentum boost not only for our defense, but for our offense," Alabama middle linebacker Rolando McClain said. "We feel like we can control the game with our defense. It's not about what they do. It's about what we do."

Playing without injured nose tackle Terrence Cody, Alabama held Tennessee to 173 total yards. And in the second half, the Vols managed just 61 yards.

"You can't replace a guy like Terrence, but we're more than just one player," McClain said. "We're more than just two or three players. We're a team, and we're going to lean on each other."