WATCH: Nick Saban speaks following loss to Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — No. 3 Alabama (6-1, 3-1 SEC) lost to No. 6 Tennessee (6-0, 3-0 SEC) on Saturday in Knoxville. Soon after the heartbreaking 52-49 defeat, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban addressed the media. Below, we’ve included everything he said during that media availability.

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Opening statement…

“I’ll kind of tell you what I told the team. Very disappointing loss. We didn’t answer the bell today. Obviously, there’s a lot of work to be done. Way too many penalties, did too many things to help them, gave up explosive plays, had a major error on special teams that was totally unnecessary that led to a score on their part. You’ve gotta give them a lot of credit. They did a nice job with their offense based on what we were trying to do on defense. 

“But we didn’t execute well enough. You’ve gotta give our players a lot of credit for fighting back, getting back in the game after getting behind 21-7 and having an opportunity to win at the end. I wish we could do some things a little different in the end, play a little better. Played way too soft at the end to let them go down the field 50 yards and get in field goal range. I think that the big thing that our players need to do is learn from this experience, have more respect for playing with discipline so we don’t get penalties, we don’t help the other team, we don’t make mental errors that help the other team.

“But I also told the players that we can accomplish every goal that we’ve had starting at the beginning of the season. There’s no room for error in the West. If we win out in the West, we can win the West and still have a chance go to the SEC Championship Game. But I think the key to the drill is you’ve gotta learn from these experiences. You’ve gotta learn from mistakes that you made. You never improve if you can’t learn from the mistakes that you made. And obviously, we have a lot of work to do. I hope everybody is all in on trying to do that work so we can improve and play better. 

“I thought Bryce played really well in the game, made a lot of plays offensively. Just didn’t get going on defense when we had the chance. On the last drive when they tied the game, got a third-down penalty, got a fourth-down penalty that led to their score to tie the game. And had an opportunity, needed to get a little closer for the field goal kick, and we didn’t get that done.”

On why Alabama chose to throw it three times near the end of the game…

“We were trying to move closer. We thought that they were blitzing and had a loaded box a lot and thought we could make plays with the passing game. Jahmyr had a chance to make a play. That’s the best things we did all night, so that’s how we thought we could get closer. When I say that, I don’t mean we should have ran it instead of pass it. I didn’t mean that at all. They were blitzing and we were in empty, so we’ve gotta throw the ball hot, and we didn’t do it exactly right.”

On how Alabama’s defense held up against Tennessee’s high-tempo offense…

“I don’t think the no-huddle offense was the issue for us. I think it was covering their receivers and allowing way too many big plays. They created a lot of mismatches. We were trying to play nickel, so they were trying to get their best receivers on the safeties, and they hit a couple times and we gave up big plays. We started dropping eight guys, that helped us in the second quarter. We did the same thing in the third quarter and played some dime so we’d have some better matchups against them. So we made some good adjustments in the game, but we just gave up too many big plays. Even in the second half, they scored on big plays.”

On what Alabama needs to change to get more consistency…

“I think you can’t have consistency unless you have discipline and execution, and I mentioned that earlier. So it’s not just penalties. It’s just… did I block the right guy? Did I do it the right way? Did I cover the right guy? Did I cover the right way? Did I rush the passer the right way? Did we run the stunts, stop the run, stay in my gap? All those things are little things that you have to pay attention to detail on so that you play together as a unit. And we’ll watch the film but obviously, when you give up 52 points, there’s things we need to do much, much better on defense, and we need to be able to take advantage of the situation we had on offense at the end of the game – although the offense did a really good job of moving the ball, keeping the ball and scoring points.”

On if Tennessee’s crowd noise made a difference in the game…

“I thought the offense handled the crowd noise extremely well. We were able to go on the clap, and the motion penalties that we had, a couple of them had nothing to do – a guy with no clap, no nothing. I don’t know why. But I thought we handled the noise extremely well in the game. They had a great crowd, the crowd did a great job in the game and we changed the momentum in the game several times. We just weren’t able to take advantage of it by getting enough stops on defense.”

On the pass interference called on Kool-Aid McKinstry’s interception…

“I can’t really comment on it. It’s hard to see when it’s down in the corner. I thought the guy made a good swat on the ball and we intercepted a tipped ball. And we had another one on 3rd and 6, the guy had coverage on the guy. I think pass interference is one of the most controversial calls in college football right now, and I’ve talked about it before but just inconsistency in how it gets called. Not just on those calls but on all calls. Officials do the best they can. I’m not making any negative comments about what they called.”

On how Bryce Young performed after being out with an injury…

“I had total trust and confidence that he had practiced enough that he wasn’t gonna forget how to play quarterback. And he didn’t. So even though he wasn’t able to practice, especially throwing the ball as much in the passing game, getting him healthy so he could go out there and throw it effectively was probably the most important thing. I think the way our medical staff managed that gave him the best opportunity to do it, and obviously came through and played really well today.”