Alabama 49, Arkansas 14
September 20, 2008 by TipsterHog

ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Ninth-ranked Bama beats UA in SEC opener
Junior Glen Coffee rushed for 162 yards and two touchdowns as the ninth-ranked University of Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the University of Arkansas, 49-14, in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
Also:
- ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Game Stats (PDF), Post-game Notes, Post-game Quotes
- ESPN.com: Tide’s interception returns propel romp vs. Hogs
- ArkansasSports360.com: Mistakes Doom Razorbacks In Loss to Crimson Tide, Two-Minute Drill, Harris: Arkansas’ Defense Makes Alabama’s Coffee a Star
Video
- ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Hogs fall to #9 Alabama
- ESPN.com: No. 9 Alabama Stays Perfect With Win Over Arkansas
- YouTube (Video): Arkansas vs. Alabama Highlights
RazorBloggers Network
- TipsterHog: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly — Alabama
Razorback Central
- Alex Abrams: Easy Pickins
- Robbie Neiswanger: Casey Dick’s Picks Hurt Hogs
- Kurt Voigt: Tide Makes Most Of Opportunities
- Nathan Allen: Smith Welcomed As Honory Captain
- Harry King: Time Of Possession Means Nothing
WholeHogSports.com
- Tom Murphy: SEC stomping
- Bob Holt: Hogs QB shoulders blame for interceptions
- Wally Hall: Tide whip Hogs up front, everywhere else
- Nate Allen: Swept under
- Heath Allen: Smith holds own against nation’s best run D
- Brandon Marcello: Dick stumbles, blames self for interceptions
- Terry Wood: Hogs waste opportunity against No. 9 Alabama
Other Sites and Blogs
- The Birmingham News: Statement maker, UA defense picks on Hogs, Melick: Despite rout, Tide says it has work to do
- The Huntsville Times: No drama required as Alabama cruises, Saban harps on mistakes, ‘Stupid throws’ haunt Hogs QB in blowout, McCarter: Morning Coffee awakens Bama to SEC laugher
- Mobile Press-Register: Tide high on the Hog, Saban finds room for improvement, Hicks: Crimson Tide will get answer next week
- The Tuscaloosa News: Tide dominates in wild win, Offensive line opens the way, Coffee too strong for Razorbacks, Tide defense comes up with big plays
Updated 9/21/08 11:30 a.m.
Comments
24 Responses to “Alabama 49, Arkansas 14”
















[...] The bad news: Just about everything else. [...]
Whew. That was every bit as bad as I thought it would be and worse. I never dreamed we’d help them as much as we did. When was the last time our defense was this bad? The 4-7 season under Nutt? And, as impressed as I was with the call Bobby made to get our first score, I was underwhelmed with the Michael Smith call in the Red Zone at the end of the half.
i said before the season began that I’d be happy with 6-6. Now even that is lookin’ a bit remote. :^/
that was all kinds of painful.
When are we going to have a decent defense? I mean honestly the last time I thought our defense was ok would be the last year Tony Bua was a linebacker.
Really need to upgrade our talent on the defensive line.
Arkansas fans are so over the top. You ran off houston nutt for this and houston is about to be 3-1
In my opinion, this game turned on about 6 plays: 3 INTs (yes, there were 4 total), 2 long runs, and a roughing the kicker. Overall, we made too many mistakes, stupid penalties, just didn’t seem like we had all 11 players playing the same play.
As for me, I’m still thinking that these young players are gaining experience and these 6 plays will be reduced as the year progresses.
Now, on to Austin… Go Hogs! Beat Texas!
Eric, one partial year doesn’t make a career!
Hey Eric, whose players are we playing with? Cupboard a little bare? Are you Danny?
Also, you’ll notice there aren’t wholesale calls for Petrino’s head. So far, I’m the only one to comment on the coach and that was to question just one play call. I’ve got no complaints on Petrino’s offense. It was very enjoyable to watch when it was effective. I even found myself expecting us to march down the field and score (early on…;^) I NEVER felt that way when Nutt’s offense was on the field. Things are going to get much worse before they get better but I seriously doubt we’ll see any calls to run off Petrino.
Eric - that’s why you don’t open your mouth. Ask your boy Nutt how that loss to Vandy at home tasted.
I also found a play, for the first time (series actually) that I questioned the play-calling. When Bama held at the 1 yard line, I thought it should have been Curtis taking the early hand offs on 1st and 2nd down, instead of Barnett, but Petrino is a guy that rewards players for what they did in practice that week, so there could be something to that. We followed that play with what should have been a TD, but Casey made another terrible pass, throwing the ball at De’Anthoney’s feet. It looked as if the Tide had spooked him a little, trying not to throw another interception, instead of making the play. The last play, I was left scratching my head a little. A 175 lb. RB, running up the gut, straight into the strength of the opposing defense. Terrence Cody, at 365 lbs., can basically handle 2 men on the line of scrimmage, so that was really the only play call I’ve questioned by our new coach so far. Owasso was right on target with what he said about the overall mistakes by Special Teams, Casey, and our run-defense. I’ll cut Casey some slack on the first INT to Arenas, with the confusion at WR, but the second one was on him. There’s about 6 plays, (mistakes) as Owasso pointed out, that determined the blow-out on the score board. These are mistakes that come from youth, not talent. Casey is a SR., but remember, he hasn’t exactly been trained to run this type of offense for 4 years either. Even handing the ball off to Smith is different, after having D-Mac and Felix for the first 3 years. I’m not making excuses for Casey, but the facts are there. Considering the type of defense he played against yesterday, I’d still say he get’s a C+ on his report card. The bottom line is, you can still tell there’s a lack of cemistry, because of all the youth and newness he’s playing with. There’s still great days ahead folks. It might not be with Casey at QB, but it’s coming. We seen that when Tyler Wilson was given a chance to play. I think about 2 years from now, we’ll probably have a couple of pretty good QBs with Mallett and Wilson. Were just gonna have to be patient. As for Eric’s comment on Houston Nutt; you’ve got to be kidding, right?
I’ve noticed that a lot of sports writers/reporters are saying that it’s obvious now that Tyler Wilson going to be the 2nd QB in the mix now, but I still beg to differ. Something tell’s me Petrino is still exsperimenting with the QB position, and I’m still not sure Wilson couldn’t be red-shirted,even now. All I really know for sure is that Wilson is very good out of the shotgun position, which is basically how your QB is going to line up when your playing from behind, being down several TDs. Does anyone know if Wilson could still be red-shirted this year? I’m not sure. We hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Brandon Barnett, until we had 1st and goal yesterday, so I’m curious as to what Petrino is really doing with Wilson. Anybody got an opinion on that?
I tell you one thing I notice yesterday is that our defense couldn’t tackle a 3 year old. I kept thinking that for the most part they where in the right place its just looked like they thought they where playing touch football or flag. I couldn’t keep up with the number of missed tackles. The guy would run up the middle get touched by 2 or 3 players and still break for a 20yrd gain. Defense is what wins games and this defense has not gotten any better through three games so that tells me one or two things. Either they aren’t spending enough time on it in practice or they need to do some more rotations until they find the right fit.
I don’t know how we could redshirt Wilson with Casey having such a bad day. The schedule doesn’t get any easier either. Texas,Auburn, and Florida do not need us throwing their defenisive backs the ball. I think he needs to re-evaluate the QB position.
Personally, I think it would be better for the future of the program, if you could still red-shirt Wilson. If so, I think it’s pretty much 50-50 right now with him. It all depend’s mostly on Casey, over these next few weeks. If he doesn’t get past these mental errors, giving the defenses big TDs, and killing key drives, Petrino may be forced to tip his hand. I’ve seen Spurrier play 2 QBs for years, not knowing who the clear leader or play-maker really was on a week to week basis. We could start seeing the future at QB sooner than we exspected.
What happened to our linebacker turned big pounder tailback? Is he still too dinged up to play or is he out for other reasons? Running him on that goal line series instead of Barnett and Smith would have been logical and expected.
I realize I’m long-winded, but I’m pretty bored today. Just thought I’d let anyone who’s reading know that Knile Davis has been rumured close to committing to the Hogs. Davis is a 6′ 1″, 210 lb., RB, who’s a 4-star recruit, according to Scout.com recruiting. He’s rated the #20 RB in the 2009 class. Ronnie Wingo is also still considering the Hogs heavily. Wingo is 6′ 3″, 212 lbs., and is the #10 rated RB in that same class. Were up to 15 commitments now, with just a hand full to go, so those two guys, or even just one, would be a nice pick-up. I’m also keeping my fingures crossed for Gabe Lynn to commit. He’s supposed to be Darius Winston’s equel, and is also heavily considering the Hogs. GO HOGS!!!!!
Good point Hawgfan. I completely forgot about Chip Gregory. Your right, it does seem like the logical choice, but I haven’t heard anything from him in a coon’s age. Nothing from the coaching staff, or the press.
Chip has had trouble holding on to the rock. One can only surmise that is why we didn’t see him on the goal line.
I firmly believe in piling on when warranted, so, Eric (or whomever you are) I understand from all the pundits that the Ole Cajun left HDN with a full cupboard—-about the opposite of what Petrino inherited. It is no coincidence that we are playing 20 true and redshirt freshmen. No one in there right, unbiased mind believe that Petrino would not have had a national championship contender with DMac, Felix, DWilliams and Mustain. You well know what HDN did to and with this bunch of certified studs. We ran 47 plays in the first half against Alabama. I doubt that has ever happened before. Never mind that the score was 35-7, the previously alluded to errors accounted for the score, not play calling, bad scheme or anything other than, as Dick put it, “stupid plays”.
There are going to be some games like this, but make no mistake, the future is very bright. If you don’t see that, then you aren’t looking very hard. Believe it or not, I’m actually looking forward to Texas next week.
[...] vs. Georgia The Tide passed their first road test smoking pork on Saturday, and they get a crack at a bona fide top ten football team. The ‘Dawgs rolled [...]
I’m glad to see that not everyone on this board is calling for Casey’s head. Some folks are, but it seems that most folks know that QBs have bad days now and then. Someone posted earlier that while Casey is a sr, he is still a freshmen when it comes to this offense. That’s a great point to keep in mind.
I think we’ll be fine this season - at some point, we’ll be able to put up some points. The good news is that we were able to move the ball very well (not considering the INTs) against a supposedly great SEC defense. That’s a big positive going forward.
Remember, one loss - even though it was a beatdown - doesn’t sandbag a whole season. Let’s wait a couple more games before we pass total judgement. Regardless, the next 3-4 years will be very exciting once our freshman mature!
Good news Hog fans. The 4 star RB I posted about earlier, Knile Davis, officially gave a verbal commit to the Hogs today. This is the type of big, physical, fast RB that Petrino like’s to use is his style of offense. Davis become’s the 16th verbal commit for the Hogs, in the 2009 class. Our recruiting is getting better and better all the time. GO HOGS GO!!!!!
[...] Razorbloggers have their wrapup of the ugly loss to Alabama and the Good, Bad, and Ugly. Hog wide receiver Marques Wade will have surgery on his knee and will [...]