Some random thoughts after the Razorbacks’ lopsided win over Eastern Michigan.
The Good
The highlight from Saturday night, without a doubt, was seeing Joe Adams back where he belongs — on the field catching touchdowns. Adams led all receivers with 109 yards and was piling up his usual ‘RAC’ yards on each of his three catches.- Knile Davis (59 yards, TD) and Ronnie Wingo Jr. (51 yards) each had a nice night, but Broderick Green stole the show. Green’s 99-yard touchdown romp in the second quarter set Arkansas, and tied NCAA records for longest run from scrimmage. The run was the seventh 99-yard rush in NCAA history since 1941.
- And speaking of Green’s big run, you have to love the effort of receiver Jarius Wright making two blocks on that play — one on the 10-yard line and one on the other 35-yard line. That’s the second time this season that Wright has thrown a block well downfield to help a teammate (Greg Childs in the Florida game) score on a big play.
The Bad
- After holding Eastern Michigan to 36 first half yards, the Halloween version of the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ Arkansas defense had a third quarter to forget. The ‘mighty’ Eagles scored three touchdowns on their first nine snaps in the quarter, while rolling up 214 total yards.
- Having to make several ‘starter changes’ after seven games based on the amount of effort shown in practice is disappointing. We realize the coaches are just trying to get everything out of this young team (and, in particular, the defense). But you would think being 1-4 in the SEC would provide all the motivation needed to give maximum effort every day.
The Ugly
- Once again, the Arkansas defense allowed another career day performance. This time Eagles quarterback Kyle McMahon was the beneficiary. McMahon’s 231 yards, 3 touchdowns, and a gaudy 196.3 passer rating were all career marks for the junior.
- The red pants. Need we say more? We realize that opinions may vary, but seriously…with that wide white stripe, do they not make us look like a Mountain West team? I guess if we only wear them on Halloween, we can claim they’re ‘part of the costume.’
Walking on Sunshine also contributed to this post.
I want to see a black uniform next year!
After seeing both Tennessee and Georgia wearing some sort of black uniform this weekend, I'm guessing it won't be long before we see the Hogs do that…if for no other reason than recruiting.
I hope we never wear black of any sort although, I must admit, the red pants are growing on me. ;^)
Seems like our DB's should be wearing black the way they got burnt in the second half…LOL. I thought the first half was good… Joe we really missed you… I hate thinking about how Joe could have changed things vs. FL and Ole Miss. I thought the second half was ugly… but with the starters out you expect a break down here and there but 3 or 4…..yikes.
I was expecting to see a few more "sorry, Mallett/Petrino"… I like Tyler Wilson but Mallett is the man. And I'm not worried if Mallett goes down like some are… Petrino if he HAS to play Wilson will run the offense out of the pistol or shotgun, he's not stupid. For now Tyler needs better control of the huddle and the ball under center. Good win… the team got some rest, bench got some game time. Bring on the Gamecocks!!! WPS
Good answer to the T. Wilson fans. Given time he will improve but he's not there yet. Some of his problems may have been with nervousness, too strong a desire to prove himself, but to me anyway, there's the possiblity he was not comfortable with the offensive schemes he had to run.
Adams would have made a big difference in the last two games. Arkansas' receivers are very good (when they're not dropping the ball) and the team is not as dependant on Adams as OSU was with Bryant. But Adams is exceptional and he forces the other receivers to bring up their game. He should give USC some unexpected headaches.
I thought Wilson looked ok playing with the 1's until the delay penalty. He gets the ball off quick and is accurate on the less than 20 throws. It was obvious that he doesn't get any game management work in practice.
Later, with the 2's on the offensive line, it was a different story.
Mallett is "the man," no doubt. Looks great when he has 5 seconds to throw. We need him and the offense to look great when he's got to get the ball off quickly. Thus far this year we haven't seen that capability in either him or the offense.
The defensive performance in the third quarter was fairly worthless. This team gets happy with themselves very quickly it seems and loses focus.
Mississippi State may now loom largest on the Razorback scheduale for a bowl bid. In order, the best chances for a win are Troy, MSU, USC and LSU. Troy is not as bad as E. Michigan but the Hogs still have the talent to walk away with that game. South Carolina is a tossup. However, if Petrino can get the Razorbacks up for this one at home then all that remains is Troy to deal with. Some here have suggested Troy as a possible trap game. I would slightly agree if Arkansas beats USC, but even then the Hogs should be flying high on the prospect of a bowl bid. Oddly, Troy is already bowl eligible and what they are playing out the season for is the Sunbelt championship. Playing for pride in the Hog game but not out of dire necessity.
Unlike last year MSU will be in the "Rock" and that's always good based on the record. Last MSU game I saw there Arkansas ran up 60 some points. But MSU can be tough, especially on defense, but if MSU is too high for Alabama then there could be a let down for the Hog game. The talent level in the SEC is such that attitude and intensity are very important. MSU is in a similar boat as Arkansas regarding a bowl bid (needing two wins)except its road is tougher with the Hogs being their least competitive opponent. The Alabama-MSU contest will be important for the Hogs regarding the mental state MSU will be in for Arkansas. MSU sandwiched in between Alabama and Ole' Miss can only be good for the Hogs.
USC is already bowl eligible and they might not be as high for this one since their next opponent is Florida. Every coach likes to win them all but given a choice with ole' ball coach's next two contests, it's no contest. I have not included LSU as a possible win given the Tiger's continuing improvement. However, based on the Hog's last two LSU games anything in the SEC is possible. Again it may depend on which team is the most desperate. So simple, yet so complex.
There are some here who still miss Nutt, but I think that the contributer who called Houston the best 8-4 coach in America is right on. Nutt had his players too high for Arkansas and they weren't ready for Auburn. They overlooked Auburn the way Auburn and Florida overlooked Arkansas. A few bad breaks and the game got away from the Rebs. Was I the only one watching who felt that even though ole' Miss was losing it was still the better and more talented team? Sorta like that bowl game we had with Wisconsin several years back (Friends from Wisconsin told me they had no idea how they won that game – I said you had an advantage because we had Nutt).
I like the red pants. Not THESE red pants so much with that crazy stripe, but I think they should wear them more and not just once a year when they play a nobody non-conference team. I think they could do better overall with the uniforms – haven't liked them the past two seasons. I know they are using the standard Adidas template, but I hate the white "piping" on the shoulders, and especially the bush-league name stitches on the back in how they overlap the piping – I really thought they would have fixed that this season. Other Adidas teams using the same jersey solve this by simply using a smaller font size for the names……ding ding ding ding! Also, why does the team have to wear white "leggins" or tall socks every game? Just another bad uniform accessory that looks bad
I've given up on the uniforms. Go all red. Put on black jerseys.
The uniforms are "tight" but they are not Razorback uniforms. I'm ok with them in a division II kind of way.
Programs that put a lot of focus on what they are going to wear tend not to do so well year in and year out.
We won't win again until we get rid of the black trim around the numbers. We won't win again in basketball until we bring back the hog jumping through the "A" logo. Just saying.
Joe Adams brings a nastiness and aggressiveness that would have helped against Fla. and Ole Miss more so than actual talent level. Did Greg Childs play the other night? I didn't see any mention of him. He also brings an aggressive nastiness that I like and you've got to love the way Jarious blocks for others. In short, I love our receivers. Can't wait to watch them over the next couple of years. Go Hogs! Dear god let us beat USC.
I love seeing big plays. I think that's part of what makes college football so very exciting to watch. BUT, the Razorbacks have got to get better at running the ball, completing short to mid-range passes, and increasing the 3rd down conversion rate. If they're only going to convert something like 40% against the Eastern Michigan Eagles, how can they expect to do well week in and week out in the SEC?
hmmmm….did you watch the game? We hit short passes…mid-range…and deep… Mallett had 2 incomplete passes…2!!! We rushed for nearly 300 yards… 3rd downs??!!?! The problem we had against EMU was we kept scoring on first down…. some people are never happy.
I was glad to see the team working on the short passing game against EMU. But sorry, Scott, that is not enough to make me happy either. I agree with Brian – we have got to run better and improve our short passing game to put us in better situations on 3rd down.
Hopefully the EMU game was a step in the right direction. I also think having Adams back is going to have a huge impact on our short passing game.
But I'm not about to believe our run game and short yardage passing woes are fixed based on what we did to EMU. Guess you can lump me into that "never happy" crowd.
My bad… I thought we were talking about just the EMU game. Of course there are things we need to work on… I just thought this post was a review of the last game. I can see concern with the defense… there's work to do. But with the offense…against EMU… we did whatever we wanted to do…. with our first unit….
I was talking about the season as a whole. I expected better performance on 3rd downs against a much weaker Eastern Michigan opponent.
Brian, I'm with you. I didn't feel like we took the opportunity to work on our obvious weaknesses on offense.
To win in the SEC you must have the ability to put together multiple play drives with consistency. Big plays are great, but you can't build a consistent offense counting on those to carry the load.
Scott – we played a team that was nowhere as good as we were. We got beat in the second half by a touchdown. Yes, we had a great offensive performance for the game. It is not an issue with ever being happy, it's just that being happy with the performance in this particular game doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.
It's a young team with a ways to go. I think the road will continue to be very bumpy the rest of the way. So far we know that SEC pressure eats Mallett's lunch. We know that, given time to throw, he will put up yards. We haven't proven that we can put up yards against pressure.
Scheme wise we didn't work on anything against Eastern Mich that will help down the road against pressure. I found that disappointing. The offensive line couldn't protect in the 4th quarter with Wilson in the game. I found that disappointing. The defense gave up 4 touchdowns in the second half. I found that extremely disappointing.
Don't let the dazzle of the offensive numbers fool you into thinking you saw a solid football team on the field Saturday.
I'm not a fool… From the offensive side of the ball this was nothing more than a confidence builder. I'm not worried about 4th quarter protection since those on the field will not be on the field for our SEC battles until at least next year. Those who will be playing this week got some rest, confidence and a chance to feel good after 2 tough loses. How are we suppose to work on multi-play drives when EMU can't tackle? Green… go down after you pick up 10 yards… Joe slow down so EMU can cover you… If you go back and look at Brian's post it's all about the offense… the defense is where the concern needs to be… our 2's and 3's should still be able to stop EMU. At the start of the season I thought if we could win 7/8 games that would be good. I thought the defense would be better… it's not. I thought the offense would be a LOT better…it's better but not to the point I thought it would be. We need to be better on first and second down… against FL our average 3rd down was 12+ yards… no wonder we didn't convert one until the 4th qtr(and that was a 3 & 12… followed by the 3 &17 Childs TD). We're getting better… Malletts going to be here for at least another year… and hopefully either Willy's gone or we fix the breakdowns we've had in the secondary. I'm not sure what great defensive minds are floating around out there, but it would be nice if we could land one.
This was nothing more than a practice, probably less. Our first team is better than our third team. Our third team did not perform well with a 40 point lead. Not much to see here. Long padded the bank account and the fans got a day long tailgate and homecoming. All good stuff for an off week.
The stretch run is the thing. Arkansas and South Carolina are both coming off of bad, flat, performances. We have the home field, they travel two weeks in a row. Our two best wins are against teams that were supposed to have great offenses. Our two worst losses were against teams with good defenses.
The old ball coach knows he can't take on Florida after two losses. This has got to be the game he has circled on the schedule. Bobby has proven he can get the boys sky high. Are we rested enough? Do we have it in the tank one more time?
The first half of the season the tested beat the rested. The second half it looks like the rested have the advantage.
This could be a good one!!
I think the SC game has a chance to resemble the Auburn game quite a bit.
We'll be rested, they won't be.
We'll be healed a little more than they are too.
I heard recently that they lost 2 more starters for the Hog game. An OT and a DE.
I predict the Hogs will come out on fire for this one.