The Good, The Bad and The Ugly — South Carolina
November 9, 2009 at 7:35am by Walking on Sunshine
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
Some random thoughts after the Razorbacks’ win over South Carolina.
The Good
Let’s start with Ryan Mallett, who torched the SEC’s best pass defense for 329 yards and a school-record 85.2 completion percentage. USC defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson was determined to stop the big play by staying in ‘Cover 3′ most of the day. Mallett was patient and took advantage underneath, especially to tight end D.J. Williams (8 catches for 137 yards).- We’ve been harping on third-down efficiency all season. Finally we saw improvement on Saturday, as the Hogs managed 10-of-16 on third down. No coincidence…three of those 10 conversions were to D.J. Williams.
- With the Hogs up 17-16, Jerell Norton gave his team a big lift with his third quarter interception in the end zone. The acrobatic play turned the game and stopped a good drive by the Gamecocks. Mallett promptly led an 80-yard scoring drive, leaving the Hogs in control, 24-16.
The Bad
- What is it about the Razorback defense and the third quarter? Stephen Garcia’s 80-yard touchdown strike to Alshon Jeffery on the first play of the third quarter gave the Gamecocks a 16-10 lead. The Hogs have surrendered 95 points in the third quarter this season. So much for halftime adjustments, I guess.
- It took the Hogs (and the crowd) most of the second quarter to get over the failed fake punt attempt. It was a risky call by Petrino, for sure, inside his own 25-yard line. But since it didn’t work and the Hogs still won, we’ll classify it as a ‘Bad.’ Of course, if you convert the attempt, grab momentum and win, we’d probably file it under ‘Good.’ Or if you fail to convert, never recover and lose the game, it’s ‘Ugly.’ Hmmm…anyone want the job of being a major college football coach?
The Ugly
- No doubt Steve Spurrier is a great offensive mind, but the Gamecocks looked like a team in disarray for much of the day on Saturday. Clock mismanagement, burning through timeouts, delay of game penalties, flying clipboards and overall sideline mayhem benefited the Hogs, but was ugly to watch.
TipsterHog also contributed to this post.
Petrino is agressive. That is what you get. It is great style of play and fun to watch and fun for the kids to play. If you are going to call a fake punt you are taking a risk. I’m sure none of us want Hooty and his five plays back.
Our defense was far from perfect. But, I still think Willy deserves some credit for South Carolina’s meltdown on offense. I think it is particularly interesting that for all of our bad or ugly defensive stats that we actually lead the conference in red zone defense.
Wow… I think that’s the first time I’ve read one of these and the ‘Ugly’ was on the other team. ;^)
Coach Bobby said it was his bad call on the fake punt. I robustly disagree. The bad was on our future superstar running back, Ronnie Wingo, Junior. We need a bit more than a yard and Ronnie runs like he is still in high school. There was a 5-10 yard gain right in front of his face and he chooses to run outside into an unblocked Cock. I say stay away from any unknown Cock, especially one that is unblocked!
Is there a ‘entertainingly ugly’ subset of the ‘ugly’ category? Because I think flying clipboards qualify.
How ’bout them beautiful Razorbacks fans? Maybe they were part of the reason the Ol Ball Coach was chunking the clipboard: ‘Cocks couldn’t hear themselves think!
That’s one good game in a row against competition. I doubt that anyone is willing to say they’re confident of the Hog defense. The offense is about as good as anybody’s, now that the Petrinos have figured out, at last, that you only have to keep making first downs, not a touchdown, with every set of downs, and eventually you reach the end zone. And they give you six, same as if you connect on a bomb.
And how ’bout them Razorbloggers, astutely analyzing team play and telepathically transmitting solutions to the players and coaches?
Am I the only one who’s lobbying for cheerleader pix? Hey, Razorbloggers, how ’bout a little support on this?
Swineherd – I think you were doing quite a bit of telepathic coaching yourself. Trying to make a few yards every play does tend to work out better in the long run than trying to trade in a lot of zero yard plays for the occasional big one.
Cheerleader pix!!!
http://www.razorbloggers.net/index.php/photos/tipsterhog/razorback-spirit-squads/
Thanks, Tipster! I saw the thumbnails (beautiful!) but I couldn’t download the Flash player version I needed to get the full show. I appreciate your good work, tho. I think I need a new computer and ISP. This is too good to miss!