Ole Miss 30, Arkansas 17
October 24, 2009 at 3:10pm by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football, Recap
ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Razorback rally comes up short
The combination of a slow start by the Razorbacks and a career-day from Ole Miss running back Dexter McCluster and quarterback Jevan Snead resulted in a 30-17 defeat for the University of Arkansas at the hands of the Rebels in Southeastern Conference football.
Also:
- ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Game Stats (PDF), Post-game Notes
- ESPN.com: Mississippi’s 1-2 punch too much for Arkansas
Video
- ArkansasRazorbacks.com: Razorbacks come up short in Oxford, Bobby Petrino Post-game Comments, Willy Robinson Post-game Comments
- ESPN.com: Ole Miss Holds Off Arkansas Late, 30-17
Articles
- Chris Bahn: Razorbacks ‘Take Step Back’ With Loss To Rebels, Two-Minute Drill
- Alex Abrams: Ole Miss Too Much For Arkansas
- Robbie Neiswanger: McCluster Runs Through Razorbacks
- Nathan Allen: Salters, Davis Score First Touchdowns
- Harry King: Ole Miss Offense Comes Alive
Well, that thoroughly SUCKED.
Amen. Houston is laughing his ass off at Broyles. Take the cool million and then come back and kick his ass twice. Nutts a genius. What’s funny is he could not win bowls and other clutch games while at ark and now he’s undefeated against ark. ark needs to join the missour valley conference.
I wouldn’t put a lot of stock into this… I’m believe we are moving in the right direction with the program.
you are right. I think so as well. Had to vent. Thanks
What an awful game to watch on PPV. The progress that was made over the last few weeks was just washed away in 60 minutes of play. Yes there were bad throws and 9 too many dropped passes, but my big concern was how Ryan Mallett wasn’t working through his progressions like normal today. Equally disturbing was the offense’s inability to pick up the blitz and dump easy passes over their head. Last on the offense, no running game and zero catches by DJ Williams is a good sign that things aren’t clicking right currently.
After two good weeks of defensive planning, I was horribly unimpressed with Willy’s scheme today. I wonder if his plan was to have Ole Miss continue playing horrible football this year — which isn’t going to happen for an entire season. Jevan Snead saw nearly every blitz coming and passed to the player left open from said blitz. Dexter McCluster finally had his best game of the season — and BOTH players set career highs. If I remember correctly, that’s the third QB this season setting career highs.
Today’s game was pitiful and I knew this was a confidence-trap game coming into it. I don’t think the staff had the team ready and now we’re going to have to scrape 4 out of 5 to go bowling. I’m still confident we’re heading in the right direction — every team will have off days. But I’m still not sold on Willy Robinson’s defense.
My biggest fear… we’d come out flat. We did worse that that… we STAYED flat all game. Offensively, we stunk!
Was not the thumping all the Hog fans were predicting. What I saw was a team of sophomores still learning a system that is complicated. I saw a team who overlooked the defense and offense of a team with juniors and seniors. I saw a team this year that still has some work to do, but should be superior the next two years if they continue to learn and have the fan support to encourage them to keep fighting. What I dont want to see is another good coach slammed by fans because we haven’t won yet when we go up against our last good coach. No Excuses No Blame just support and improvement is all I ask.
Enough said!
We were flat…no doubt. As flat as we have been under Petrino. But I thought Willy helped them too…fell for all of HDN’s tricks. Didn’t defend the flat, screens, draws. Didn’t gang up on him. Pitiful defensive game plan.
Well, I guess Houston Nutt is singing “How you like me now?” I was more a Nutt supporter than a Hater….but dang. He’s two for two. Our receivers sure helped him out. Had they just pulled in two or three of those we’d have won by two or three touchdowns.
Wow for just another game Coach Nutt got a Gatorade Shower from the players.
The Hogs’s defense holding the Webs to 30 points should have been good enough for the win if the offense had been working. Arkansas does not have a reliable passing scheme. They have only the deep pass, not the screens and slants and shovel passes to defeat the blitz. Keith Jackson has often commented that Mallet’s passes are hard to catch, even when they are on-target, because he throws so hard. It’s hard for the defensive back to intercept, but also hard for the Hogs’s receivers to catch. And his accuracy has been off.
Some pundits say defense wins championships. I don’t know about that. Offense is the part of the game in which you have possession and the opportunity to control the ball and the clock, if you can control yourself. Lately Arkansas has been losing because of lost opportunities, lack of execution on offense. They don’t know how to handle the blitz. I don’t see the variety of offensive plays necessary to compete in the SEC. The conference record shows that. Unless Petrino develops a ball-control offense the Hogs will not be competitive in the SEC.
Underhog, I think you nailed this perfectly. I don’t think you’ll win many games in the SEC by only scoring 17 points. Can you win if you opponent scores 30? I’d guess more than 50% of the time so I don’t believe that this is just a defensive issue. We had a total team break down with Ole Miss.
Let’s hope that the next 3 homes games provides some motivation for the team.
Sorry: If your receivers can’t catch the ball when thrown directly to them, it’s difficult to win. If any of these receivers, and they are talented, expect a shot at the pros then they had better learn to catch Mallet’s fastballs. I think the absence of Joey Adams really hurt the ‘backs, especially on that important 3rd down play where the freshman flat dropped it.
My thoughts EXACTLY!
All good points.
We were flat, no doubt. But, your schedule is your schedule. You can’t ask the kids not to get up to try and beat the gators and, you can’t expect that not to have an effect the next week, especially for a young team that is learning the Petrino system. His expectations are so high each week. I don’t know how that is going to work in the SEC. But, Georgia Bama back to back and then Florida Ole Miss back to back a few games apart is tough business for a bunch of freshmen and sophs.
That was Mallett’s 10th start in college football. No, he did not play well. We were calling for Wilson in the third quarter at our house just to give Mallett a break and see if he could spark the team. Petrino loves the big arm. The long ball is his best throw.
We were outcoached a bit on both sides of the ball. But, they had two weeks and we had Florida. Willy is going to be fine. He just needs a couple of more players.
And of course you have classic Hooty. He has an easy week before to prepare and get his team sky high. He is in his shell for their big games against South Carolina and Bama but allows the OC to actually prepare a game plan once there is nothing left to play for; the best 8-4 coach in America. None of that would have worked if we had been just average. We would have beaten them easily if we had played our normal game.
Your assesment of Nutt was right on. but Nutt isn’t dumb. He hid McCluster in the UAB game and it paid off against the Hogs. The UAB game films were very deceptive. I think McCluster is the best running back in the SEC, with Ingraham a close second. I disagree somewhat about the Hogs being flat. The D line was doing a great job early and those goal line stands were terrific. And there was no flat with Smith and Johnson. The defense got worn down and the tackling became poorer. A couple of catchs would have made a big difference. And shanking a pooch kick? In defense of Mallet, he has had few interceptions which is remarkable considering the number of times he has thrown. His “bad” throws many times are “safe” throws which explains a lot of his low throws. In contrast to the Hogs the Rebs were skyhigh. Nutt does know how to motivate.
This game was a mirror image of what I expected. So much for me know anything about football.
Golf, Owasso, Under, I disagree with all of you.
1. Make no mistake, defense does win championships (especially in the SEC), even if your offense is anemic. In the past years, look at the championship teams? Sure wasn’t Texas Tech. Florida and LSU have had decent offensives but outstanding defenses. This year, look at Bama, LSU and Texas – they are both in the hunt and what makes them great? Thier ability to hold teams to very few points and to get stops when they need them. If you can do that, you don’t have to expect much of your offense week after week. If you can’t do that, then you’re in a shootout, which can be tough based on what you can control with your offensive schemes. Our offense scheme is fine, guys. I’m 100% convinced that until we can put a competitive defense on the field we won’t be in contention for a championship.
2. Don’t put this one on Mallett…sure he was off on a few throws, but what QB isn’t? He didn’t miss wide open receivers – our receiving corps were horrible yesterday. Wright’s dropped pass when he was wide open for a TD? Child’s drop when he turned to run upfield? Crawford’s inability to pull one in? And don’t get me started on our OLine. They couldn’t block the run, and Mallet had no time to throw and was constantly either running out of the pocket or taking a sack. And quit whining about how hard Mallet throws the ball. How long has this been happening, uh about 2 years? You think the receivers could learn how to catch a hard ball by now (that’s what she said)? Don’t get me wrong, I love Childs, Wright and Salters….they just had a bad game – which I attribute to youth.
3. The possession where the 51 yarder by Tejada was called off killed us. I put that one on the coaches. Why didn’t any of the coaches call time out with the clock running down? Mallet took a sack rather than throwing it away to put us out of decent position to score. Two delay of game penalties on one drive is inexcusable. Sure, Mallet’s got to manage this but the coaches have to pay attention too.
I’ve come to expect little from our defense each week. I still think this is on Willy – the scheme against Ole Miss was horrible. The difference between this game and the others is that our receivers were unreliable for the first time all season, really. I attribute this to youth…playing in a high pressure game on the road is tough. I think the loss to FL played more in this than others suspected.
Don’t forget, we were in this game despite a horrible showing. I look for a strong showing and confidence building now that the toughest part of our schedule is over.
Man, can’t wait until next year when these guys grow up a bit more!
Soupd, I agree with much of what you said, especially about this being a young team, and they just learning a complicated offense. But look at the stats: Mallett averaging over 20 yards per catch but completing only one third of them. That’s the deep ball. And D.J. Williams having no catches? Consider the completion rate on third down, for the season, only one third of them. Ole Miss has a rate twice that on third down. That’s because the Hogs are always in third and long, because they can’t complete four- and five-yard plays consistently.
I’m sure I don’t know how hard it is to catch one of Mallet’s passes, but I kinda think Keith Jackson might know. All-American, All-Pro: That why I cited him, from the radio broadcast. I’m not saying the loss is on Mallett; I referenced the offensive scheme, lacking in short, high-percentage plays. That’s coaching. Everybody seems to think Astronutt outcoached Petrino, in all phases of the game. I never heard anybody, in all the commentary, dispute that.
I’ve played several sports in my time. I’m an old guy now, and my game is pool, for money. In all of them, ball-control is the name of the game. Petrino is a cowboy, a riverboat gambler, at least in this stage of development.
Defense wins championships? I’m getting tired of that phrase. If you can’t score then you had better have the perfect defense, which doesn’t exist. Two years ago fans were complaining about Nutt’s conservative running game with the QB’s job being to hand the ball off. We want the Long Ball was the cry. Now, it’s well maybe the longball isn’t good enough. Petrino’s a long ball guy and who wants to score more than his opponents, which sometimes ends up as a “shootout”. He has the QB to do it. Another QB another approach. But this philosophy works with programs that can’t consistently attract the top prospects. If your outmanned you’re not going to win with defense, but you may just steal one with a wideopen offense. This started in early 20th Century with Gus Dorais and Knute Rockne in their victory clash with heavily favored Army where the forward pass came into it’s own. Later we got the wishbone and now the spread. All designed to get one up on the defense. Insofar as defense is concerned,when your opponent is screwing up on their own the defense may look a whole lot better than it is. Have hope, it will get better, believe me Hog opponents fear Mallet’s arm. One thing about 3rd and long: If you get enough penalties in critical situations you put your ownself in harm’s way.
I agree with soupd to a point.
Defense does win championships, especially in the SEC.
Also, the WRs had their worst game by far this season.
I will say though that Mallett was responsible for some of those throws.
When your only throwing a 5 to 10 yard route pass, it’s not nesessary to throw a rocket to the WR with man coverage playing back with plenty of room. I don’t know if Mallett’s thinking here is to give the reciever time to run after the catch or what, but obviously, just making the catch and moving the chains should be the 1st priority in that situation.
Before the season started, there was a lot of talk about the possibility of Tyler Wilson getting a lot of quality playing time, but there was still a concern of him not taking the snap from under center well consistantly.
I haven’t heard anything lately on how that’s coming along, but I can sure tell you that we needed a good steady dose of his accuracy in the short passing game yesterday.
There must still be some issues there, otherwise, I think Petrino had a perfect opportunity to put Wilson in by the end of the 3rd qr.
Did anyone else notice that Mallett was in the shotgun the majority of the 4th qr? This is where Wilson is at his very best, so i’m a little confused as to why we didn’t see him in there.
We were obviously going to pass the ball and probably need a 2 minute drill had we pulled within a TD with the way Nutt likes to run down the clock. I believe Wilson could have done well in that situation.
I have some random thoughts from other comments:
* Flat out, having Ryan Mallett in the game gives us the best chance at winning. That’s not a knock on Tyler at all — but changing QBs at that junction wouldn’t have been on Petrino’s mind at all. A Matt Jones type QB would’ve been best on Saturday.
* Mallett throws hard? Of course he does. And I don’t disagree with Mr. Jackson in that he should finesse his throws a bit more. But watching the game, there were times that Mallett had to wing the ball to a WR to get it over a defender’s head. And the dropped balls are unforgivable. If you get your fingers on the ball, it should be a catch. And yes, Mallett is pretty smart when it comes to throwing the ball away, or placing it where no one can catch it — but no more winging it across field, please.
* Yes Petrino’s forte is offense and the deep pass, but he stresses balance a lot. Saturday’s game showed a lack of balance because our OL and running game was inept and our short passes were non-existent. When our running game is going, the pass action works really well.
* Speaking of the OL, my guess as to why Mallett was in shotgun a majority of the 4th quarter was because he needed an extra 3 steps on the DL that was having their way with our OL. Why we didn’t try a string of screens to slow them down is beyond me.
* DJ Williams, I think, only had one throw go his way. Without re-watching, I think DJ was blocking all game long. But I am getting tired of the announcers being in awe that DJ is listed as a major player only to yield nothing worthwhile on the field.
* I really want Willy to succeed and excel in the SEC — but his scheme this week was bad and I’m really suspect on his coaching. He’s the Defensive Coordinator and Secondary Coach — our Secondary is our weakest link and when he blitzes with the corners, it becomes even more susceptible. I think if we lose 2, or more, of our last five — he’s gone.
* I agree 100% with the notion that we’re still a super young team and have much room to grow. It’s very easy to forget that notion when you have a great game versus the #1 team in the country and follow it up with a lousy one. It usually takes 3 years to turn a program around. Let’s get momentum on the rest of the back stretch, kick butt at recruiting again and have a monster year next year (when our schedule should be a little more forgiving).
Gonzo, Gonzo Gonzo. That was NOT the best time to replace Mallet with Wilson. The problems the Hogs were having were not entirely Mallet’s fault. If Petrino had substituted wilson in that would have dented Mallet’s confidence level. Petrino knew this. Plus putting in an inexperienced QB in a game you had a chance to win until the last of the 4th quarter? Plus you are assuming that Wilson would have done better. I think it would have been like Tom T. Hall’s fox on the run. Not a good time to break a QB in. If Mallet had really been screwing up this might make sense. Mallet would have furious and rightfully so, to be pulled because his receivers were not making catches. The best time to use Wilson will be with Eastern Michigan and Troy. Unlike another writer here I do not believe that Troy will give Arkansas a tight game. The “backs backs are up against it now because of the urgency to get to a bowl. Considering how badly the Hogs played it was amazing that they were still in the game until the last quarter. Troy? Sorry not his year.
I am no fan of HDN but in this world what goes around comes around. We had this coming to us for all abuse we have been heaping on him and Ole Miss. At some point devine justice steps in and says enough is enough. I am pointing my finger at myself first.
5 and 7 hog breatheren. hope they can wiggle past eastern or western michigan and don’t count on beating troy
Back when I was a young’n it was said “the best defense is a great offense.” Obviously to win championships you must have both a great offense and defense. When you have a ball-control offense you can control time-of-possession, which wears out your opponent’s defense, then you pull away in the fourth quarter. In the first half against Ole Miss, they had the ball 18min. to our 12 min, a 3/2 advantage, which wore out our already small, weak defense. Then McCluster ran all over us in the second half.
At the end, the team with the most points wins. Your opponent can’t score points if they don’t have the ball. Part of the game is playing keep-away.
One of the ways Nutt wins is with ball-control. If he had a great passer and receivers and knew how to use them, for a more balanced attack, he would be awfully hard to beat.
I will never like Nutt and Broyles and Rick Shaeffer and that Jesus-lovin’ crowd, because they tried to impose their religion upon the Razorback athletic programs. And I think that is where the football program jumped the tracks in the late ’70s, and eventually the basketball program, too. I’m hoping we can get away from that with Long and Petrino, but I don’t know where they stand with that. Regardless, they need to keep it to themselves. Religion is one of the things people hate Tebow for–or rather, for his display of it. Same for Nutt and Scheffer and that crowd.