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Running Out Of Superlatives

November 7, 2007 by HogBlogger 

The South Carolina game Saturday left me speechless.  Almost.

We ‘ran’ over them as I thought we would.  In fact, we ‘ran‘ over them way beyond what I thought we would.  Nothing short of ‘amazing.’  Even ‘beyond amazing’ doesn’t describe our running game last Saturday.

Michael Smith (AP Photo/Beth Hall)As Razorback weekends go, it was one of the best in quite a while.  The basketball team returned to pressing and running the floor Friday night.  Saturday brought perfect weather and a nice tailgate.  (Gumbo and bread pudding on one side…king crab legs on the other…tacos, fajitas and salsa in the middle.)

The Hogs looked crisp and sharp while warming up.  During the pre-game ceremony for the seniors, Houston Dale and the players seemed relaxed and happy.  If it were up to me, 7 p.m. games would be standard.  I love the cool air and the feel of the crowd at night games.  College football is better after the sun goes down.

The offense (finally!) used Peyton Hillis and DMac to distract the defense rather than give them keys on where we were headed.  Andrew Davie actually caught the ball twice in a row.  Michael Smith got the ball in the motion from the Wildcat.  (Since it was back to the way it used to be — forcing the defense to cover from sideline to sideline — I’m going back to the old name.)  Felix and DMac put on a show.  Casey’s field generalship was strong.  I think Nathan Emert’s showing the week before against Florida International inspired him.

I credit David Lee and Houston Dale for dropping the egos and actually setting up and attacking the defense in a fashion similar to last year.  Having a game plan that forces the defense to defend multiple weapons makes a huge difference in our running game.  We eat up yards much faster, there’s less pressure on our line to hold their blocks, and we get into the end zone a lot more.

Felix Jones (AP Photo/Beth Hall)The defense played hard, but gave up far more yards and points than I expected.  We did get the stops we needed in the second half.   But had the offense not been in total domination mode, the story of the game would have been much different.  As a side note, Reggie once again missed the memo on how the coaches were supposed to dress for the game.  (I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks it’s funny that the black coaching pants have disappeared?)

The Hogs ‘backs against the wall’ effort to start the ‘new season’ has been impressive.  This is a much more focused and intense team than we saw in the earlier home conference games.  The game planning on offense has been much improved.  The offensive line is playing much better.

And while the defense is playing better, our schemes leave us open to attack by good offensive coordinators.  If we can’t pressure the quarterback, we’re going to get burned a few times per game.  And against good passing teams, we tend to struggle to stop the run.  I’m still waiting for the point where we start playing better on defense this year.

Tennessee is up Saturday.  I’m headed over to Knoxville to enjoy the festivities.  My last trip there it rained the whole game and our undefeated season was tripped up and bounced away from us.  This year, my new shirt is 2-0…so I’m optimistic about our chances.  (The early part of the year was hard on the wardrobe.  As a true Hog fan, I don’t let any clothes go to another game if they’ve previously been involved in a loss.)

Hillis, Felix, DMac — these are days to enjoy.  I doubt we’ll see the likes of them together on one Razorback team again.  Those guys are good.

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8 Responses to “Running Out Of Superlatives”

  1. mike in magnolia on November 7th, 2007 8:51 am

    Thanks Hardblogger for and excellent article. Good observations. Not since James and Dickerson at SMU has the NCAA seen a backfield like this. How many years ago was that? It may be another 30 years before we see it again and I just hope it is at Arkansas again. Let’s see I’ll be 78 years old………..Never mind my grandkids will enjoy it then

  2. Mike in Magnolia on November 7th, 2007 11:13 am

    Just in case you might wonder Craig James and Eric Dickerson had 8,222 yards for their 4 year career. To date DMac and Felix have 6,927 yards in 3 years

  3. Bluffhawg on November 7th, 2007 2:46 pm

    Can you imagive how successful Okie St. would have been if they’d used Thurmon Thomas & Barry Sanders similar to D-Mac & Felix.

  4. Wood on November 7th, 2007 2:46 pm

    Good job pointing out the role of Hillis. At the end of last season, we all heard about how much we missed Hillis. It seemed to me in previous games we weren’t using him in that role. I think when he is the lead blocker, our running game is much more effective. Early in the year, he was rarely lining up at FB and leading through the hole. He was always put in motion and wouldn’t have a head of steam going thru the hole b/c he was that much closer to the line. Often we were in single back formations. I think alot of Jones and McFadden’s success can be attributed to Hillis.

  5. GonzoHog on November 7th, 2007 3:21 pm

    Mike in Magnolia, Those are pretty awesome stats D-Mac & FJ are putting up. If you gave them 100 yd. games apiece, to finish out the year, that would put them over 7,500 yds. If they played a 4th year, as Dickerson & James did, they would shatter the mark of 8,222 in thier SR. year.

  6. HogBlogger on November 7th, 2007 5:52 pm

    Those “Pony Express” guys were pretty good too. I only saw them once in person, and they were very tough to stop.

    I haven’t said it in a blog post yet, but I believe Peyton Hillis is probably the most talented overall player we’ve had since Gary Anderson. Hillis has it over Anderson in that he is a superb blocker and is viewed as a much more durable player. Anderson was under-utilized by Lou Holtz because Lou was concerned about getting him hurt. He proved in the NFL to be much tougher than Lou gave him credit for.

    A guy that can run the fullback trap, lead block for DMac and Felix, play tailback and play both tight end and wide receiver is a pretty rare commodity. I suspect when the it is all said and done he will have the most prolific pro career - guys like him tend to play many more years than pure running backs
    Think Todd Christenson of the Oakland Raiders from years ago.

  7. BlindHog on November 7th, 2007 7:18 pm

    Tooooooooo true guys. And it is perfect to find an unadulterated moment to recognize the college football miracle that is Cat-Dog. Spanking the ole’ ball coach for 4 quarters of arkansas smash mouth football is the right moment. Even better would be to reverse last years fortunes by going 9-3, 10-3 with a Capitol One bowl win over Michigan.

    They deserve that. They have earned it. So has Hillis as Hogblogger also pointed out perfectly.

    It would be a perfect ending. The gutless punk could go out on his own terms, no passes in the bowl game. Frank could go out on top.

    Three things happen when you throw the ball and two of them are bad!!

  8. Catohog on November 7th, 2007 8:02 pm

    “Never before has so little been accomplished with so much.”….Catohog