Tennessee football: 2017 Week 12 Vols, SEC, Top 25 predictions

Mercer Bears (5-5, 4-4 SoCon) at No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide (10-0, 7-0)

Saturday, Nov. 18 at Noon E.T.; Bryant-Denny Stadium; Tuscaloosa, Ala.

TV: SECN

Yes, the Alabama Crimson Tide decided to put us all to sleep with their final game before the Iron Bowl. But, believe it or not, this could not come at a better time for them.

Nick Saban’s team is decimated by injuries. They desperately need to get healthy, and that makes the Mercer Bears coming to town a bit scary.

Remember, Mercer gave the Auburn Tigers a game earlier this year. And Alabama is much more banged up than that Auburn team was. So if they don’t take this game seriously, they could be in for a bit of a fight. And that’s the last thing they need right now.

Auburn on the road next week is going to be much tougher than anybody would have expected. Coming off a close win against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, a close game here could be devastating.

What will happen?

Alabama doesn’t need to be healthy for this fall out of bed victory. They’ll do to Mercer what they did to Tennessee football at the beginning of the year.

As has been the case all season for FCS games, we’re not going to give you a spread pick or over/under on this one to take. Just know that Alabama is going to win in a pretty significant blowout.

And they’ll get the rest they need for the Iron Bowl.

Alabama: 62 Mercer: 0