Lose a game like Alabama did Saturday and there will be a laundry list of questions.

Margins were obviously thin in a 52-49 final that ended Tennessee’s 15 years of futility against the Crimson Tide. And the outcome was avoidable considering the school-record 17 penalties, a flubbed punt and what Nick Saban called “soft” defense on the two plays that set up the Vols’ game-winning field goal.

But what about the sequence that led up to Alabama’s attempt at a game-winning kick?

With the game tied at 49, the Tide was moving the ball for a shot to slip out of town with another win in Knoxville. After a huge third-down conversion put Alabama at the Vol 32 with 38 seconds to play, overtime looked like the worst-case scenario.

But after three straight incomplete passes, Will Reichard faced his ultimately unsuccessful 50-yard attempt with 21 seconds on the clock.

So what about the plan to throw it all three downs before the long kick attempt? Former Crimson Tide offensive lineman Andre Smith on Twitter expressed his desire to run the ball in that scenario.

Saban addressed the thought process behind the late play calls.

“We were trying to move it closer and we thought they were blitzing and loading the box a lot and we thought we could make plays in the passing game,” Saban said. “Jahmyr (Gibbs) had a chance to make the play. That’s the best thing we did all night. That’s how we thought we could get it closer. When I say that, I don’t mean we should have ran it instead of pass it at all. They were blitzing and we were in empty so we have to throw the ball hot and we didn’t do a good job of that.”

Gibbs ran for 103 yards on 24 carries while catching five passes for 48 yards but he dropped a pass across the middle on second-and-10 in the final sequence. Bryce Young’s third down throw came under pressure as Jermaine Burton was well covered to force the long field goal attempt.

“It’s a tough loss,” Young said. “It means a lot to us. Means a lot to our state. Means a lot. We have to do a good job of bouncing back. We’ll cover the tape and we’ll learn from it. It’s on us to rebound and make sure that we’re fixing the mistakes and getting better from it.”

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.