Alabama: Is the Tide Lowering?

Sometimes you have high tide in the ocean, but it always goes down after a while, and that is how I feel the Alabama Crimson Tide are. They have struggled to end games in the past few weeks against Kentucky and Ole Miss.

Sure, they won the games, as they were expected to. And I am not trying to say running up the score is good; but really, you could hold them off by scoring a little more, 'Bama.

I watch Alabama football religiously, and I watch what experts think about the Tide too, and I can tell you they are surprised with how 'Bama is winning. They were projected to beat Ole Miss by two touchdowns, which they would have done if they hadn't let the Rebels come back.

To me, it looks as if Alabama is running out of gas and emotion. Sure, the big games against Clemson and Georgia were good and got them hyped up; but maybe they were running on adrenaline and that's it.

The Tide play Tennessee this week, a team they beat handily last year. They are looking a bit worse this year, but it's a rivalry game, which usually a game in which a team will do anything to win.

And Tennessee would love to knock off the No. 2 Alabama team, which makes this interesting. If they look as they have been the past few weeks, especially in the fourth quarter, we may see an upset.

It's great that they are winning, and in the SEC all the games are tough. All the teams are good, even though the record doesn't show it, and they are built with good defenses. That seems to be Alabama's strength and their weakness.

They are letting teams come back in the fourth quarter. If they do that against a team like Florida or LSU, or even this coming week with Tennessee, it could be bad for the Tide. But what do you think the Tide should do to live up to being one of the best teams in the nation?