Some random thoughts after watching the Razorbacks’ loss to Alabama.
The Good
The good news is the Tide defense will be the best the Hogs see all season. That experience, coupled with getting a tough test away from home, will help this young team down the road.- There were a few blemishes (which we’ll get to in a little bit) but, overall, special teams were improved. A well-executed fake punt; kicker Cameron Bryan boomed both of his kickoffs deep and away from the dangerous Javier Arenas; and Dennis Johnson had a nice 52-yard kickoff return.
- It was great to see safety Elton Ford back on the field after working hard to recover from a serious season-ending neck injury last year.
The Bad
- The Razorbacks were 2 out of 14 on 3rd downs against Alabama, and are now 8 out of 38 (21%) for the season, which ranks 116th in the country. For an offense that needs to help its defense by staying on the field as long as possible, that’s a worrisome trend.
- After forcing Alabama to go three and out to start the second half, and allowing the offense to pull to within 14-7, the Hog defense gave up another one of those ‘one-play, 80-yard drive’ momentum killers that are unfortunately becoming their signature. Allowing those big plays sure is wasting a lot of this team’s hard effort on both sides of the ball.
- After earning a spot as the first Razorback true freshman offensive lineman to start a game since Shawn Andrews (2001), Anthony Oden — who will someday be a great one — was overmatched and looked overwhelmed until he was eventually replaced by junior Ray Dominguez.
The Ugly
The 52-yard rushing touchdown by Alabama’s Trent Richardson, which featured four missed tackles by the Hogs’ defense including two — TWO — behind the line of scrimmage, was worse than ugly…it was fugly.- Ryan Mallett’s footwork in the pocket was horrible on Saturday and was the biggest reason for his 12-for-35 performance. Credit the Tide defensive pass rush for a lot of that bad footwork, but Hog fans need to keep reminding themselves that the redshirt sophomore isn’t seasoned enough yet to keep his frustrations from affecting his play.
- Punter Dylan Breeding averaged 39.8 yards per punt, but did have one ugly moment when he had a 9-yard shank shot in the first half. But don’t blame Breeding for the “rugby-style” punt attempt in the third quarter when none of his blockers were moving the protection pocket. That strange call and poor execution falls squarely on special teams coach John L. Smith. Ugh…we just wish rugby punts were banned by the NCAA to keep highly paid coaches from attempting to think too much.
Walking on Sunshine also contributed to this post.
Those stupid plays are what makes this staff 'players' coaches. Kids love to play a fun, aggressive style of football. No, we are no better at it than much else of what we do but, we will be.
When you consider that we gave them 21 or their 35 points and dropped enough passes to keep at least two good drives alive, we didnt' do that poorly for such a young team. We are still playing mostly sophomores and freshmen. Next year will be a better year but, this team is still two years away from Atlanta.
Congrats to Bobby for taking part of the blame for not having the team ready to play. (Did anyone see who Hooty threw under the bus down in Oxford?)
Oh, and congrats to Saban for not running up the score.
Saban won points with me. They could have scored 50. We've got to beat A&M.
Personally, I didn't think the Razorbacks' offensive squad performed as poorly as the numbers or commentators will suggest. On quite a few clutch 4th downers the Hogs pulled it out. For a defensive minded 'Bama fan, that's demoralizing.
I will say (in response to GolfHog) that it's not in Saban's style to run up the score. North Texas was an unavoidable score ascender, considering we played out 2nd string the ENTIRE 2nd half. However, you Hogs are an SEC team. If anyone's gonna be unclassy, keep their starters in, and run the score up to ungodly proportions; then we know who to call for that (UF).
Overall, Hogs fans were nicer than most. Sorry that we had to beat you, but best of luck from here on out! ROLL TIDE! Go get them Aggies, Razorbacks!
Well I admit it…I was dumb enough to throw common sense out the window and predict a win this past Saturday against ya'll…Never mind All those 4 and 5 star recruits ya'll have gotten the past 3 years…I guess I just thought Mallett would have success dinking and dunking the short routes and not holding on to the ball like he did against Georgia…He did not do that but the bottom line is the overall talent difference between the teams was evident very early(especially on defense)…Bama's defense just slobber-knocked both Mallett and the receivers from the outset of the game, and as the off-target passes and dropped balls later indicated, our guys were intimidated and tired of looking through the earholes of their helmets….Yes, our D gave up big play after big play late, but it was your D that ultimately set the tone early on for the inevitable outcome….I think the Hogs will learn from this, recover, and still reach a bowl game however….Alabama may be the best team in the country and to me looks improved over last year with the exception of the run game…Your linemen don't explode the running lanes open quite like last year, but the Offense seems to be more balanced and McElroy is gonna be a really good QB…You have some outstanding young talent at the skill positions also…Good Luck the rest of the season (Maybe I should be telling your future opponents that..lol) and hopefully Hightower will be back for ya'll soon.
One more thing about Saturday.
This team put their entire off season and fall camp in Georgia. You could feel the hangover on Sunday and Monday. Looking back, it is no surprise that they were flat. They will play much better on Saturday. This team is getting better. They will still surprise someone before it is done, if, they can find a cornerback.
Speaking of the announcers… did anyone else want to throat punch the CBS guys for (sorry) verbally "oralizing" every thing Alabama did? It's not bad enough we weren't playing well, but geesh! I am glad the last two games are behind us. Hopefully, only one more loss left this season. Go Felix Go tonight!!!
Arkansas has the talent but I feel its the head coach that they need.They had a good coach a coach over the years did a very good job and when they had nothing at times coach nutt made it happen Petrino so far has showed very little if anything it looks like the hogs will be home again watching bowl games and not in one if lucky they may win 4 games this year.One day in the future it will happen and we can look back and laugh.GO HOGS!!!!!!
Oh Please, George.
Just look at the talent level. Bobby has done a wonderful job in a very short time. Yes, we took our licks against two top ten teams with a bunch of freshmen and sophs. Give Bobby two or three years and we will be the top ten team.
It took no time at all to build Hooty's little 8-4 teams. This is going to take some time.
It's only been two games folks, against the best in America. I hope you will admit your mistakes after Auburn.
George must have missed the Ole Miss – SC game. Classic Nutt; he has NFL talent and can't devise a game plan and play calling to exploit it. He has a NFL arm and only sends one receiver out on 2nd and 3rd downs? Doesn't work in his speed threat until he's in a desperate situation? Good grief….Ole Miss will be calling for his head by the end of next year when they keep hearing about his goals of mediocrity (West championship and SEC champ game with marginal bowl).
George, you need to watch more Hog games. Petrino's offense is outstanding; we've been putting up huge numbers for 2 years with youngsters. Once we get some defensive talent and good defensive coaching, we'll be hard to beat. And Petrino isn't talking about SEC divisional championships, he's talking about BCS bowls and national championships. That's what I want to hear from my team's head coach.
Nutty fans are like cockroaches. Turn out the lights for 30 minutes and then turn them on. There they are scurrying about for cover. Did you watch the Carolina-Ole Miss game?
This weekend is huge for the Hogs. We need to get the wheels rolling against A&M. I want to see a balanced offense of run and pass. So that our D can look the way it did against Bama in the first half. If the O is rolling and the D is fresh we can be a very good football team. We just need everything to click and I am hoping that this could be the game to do it.
It will be on a huge stage on ESPN2 in Dallas at Jerry's new place. Could be a great time for the team to click. It will get some notice from other teams and recruits alike. WE just got beat the past two weeks by two top programs. There is not shame in that. Should we have played better? YES. But this is not the time to jump off the bus the wheels have not even got rolling yet.
I agree Blake – we went toe to toe with Georgia, and hung with Bama for 2 and a half quarters – two top notch opponents. Saturday would be a great opportunity to put a complete game together.
Our team of youngsters are building confidence that will play well later this season and into next year.
We'll be ok, I garentee it.
Our defense isn't as bad as some people are making it out to be.
If not for the long TD run by Richardson given up in the 3rd qr., our run-defense's average rushing yards given up would have been somewhere between 2 to 3 yards per carry. That's pretty dang good against a very good rushing team like 'Bama.
Our offense (especially the O-line pass-blocking and dropped passes by the WRs)) was disappointing, but I firmly believe the Tide have the best defense in the country this season, bare none.
We still have a very young team. We're not there yet, but I have confidence our coaches will have us up there with the SEC's elite by the next 2 years.
We're still recruiting depth on the D-line and LBs, while our younger and most talented players gain vauable experience.
Hang in there Hog fans, it's only going to get better.
GO HOGS GO, BABY!!!!! BEAT THOSE AGGIES!!!!!