Arkansas at Alabama Live Blog powered by Jim Harris. The stage is set. It is Razorback game day. The Razorbacks take on the defending national champions and current No. 1 team in the country – the Crimson Tide – here we go.
It’s game day people! Let’s have a blast!
9:43 p.m. — Oops, scratch that OT in Oxford. Ole Miss is going to win 27-24 on a 41-yard field goal with 2 seconds left.
BTW, all was not lost in Tuscaloosa: Arkansas won the time-of-possession stat 31 minutes to 29. See how important possession time is?
9:22 p.m. 52-0 Alabama — No, I’m not pulling out last year’s score for grins. Alabama has just added insult to injury and matched last year’s score against Arkansas on an 80-yard run around left in by Derrick Henry, all 238-pounds of him, who outran the entire defense. There wasn’t even a linebacker or defensive back who could keep up with him.
Sure, they’re tired. They also have little want to.
I will say that Arkansas football, even under a new coach, is at the lowest ebb I’ve seen it in 23 years. Arkansas has been outscored by Alabama in back-to-back games 104-0. If anyone associated with Arkansas is not utterly embarrassed by that, they should depart immediately.
Arkansas in back-to-back weeks this season has been outscored 104-7.
I’m trying to remember the worst game Arkansas has ever played at night on ESPN and nothing matches it.
Think about this: Georgia State only lost to Alabama 45-3 and surely fought the Tide harder than the Hogs did. Awful Colorado State only lost in Tuscaloosa 36-10.
Nick Saban looked genuinely chagrined at that last touchdown — certainly he was happy for his young freshman recruit to rip off an 80-yard romp, but at the same time he wasn’t interested in completely embarrassing Bret Bielema and the Hogs.
Really, Arkansas has just done this to itself. Sure, Bobby Petrino left little in talent. But some of these players, the older ones, have apparently come to that conclusion as well that they aren’t any good and have just stopped giving the kind of effort required to play football. Missed tackles, dropped passes, you name it. Three weeks of this mess.
The best news for Arkansas and the fans is, there is no game next Saturday.
The losing starts back in two weeks with Auburn coming to Fayetteville, followed by a road trip to Ole Miss, which was talented enough to battle LSU evenly on Saturday night (they’re in overtime as I type) in the game opposite this joke of a contest.
9:04 p.m. 45-0 Bama — Hogs defense stops the Bama backup-backups on downs in Arkansas territory. There are still seven minutes to get on the scoreboard.
8:52 p.m. 45-0 Alabama — Best play of the night by Arkansas. Great special teams downing of a punt on the Tide 1-yard line after a drive stalls at the Alabama 40. I feel a safety coming. 45-2.
8:42 p.m. 45-0 end of third — It’s hard to believe that was just the end of the third quarter. This is brutal from the Arkansas perspective.
Alabama added a field goal late in the quarter, right after the defense had stopped the Alabama backups and quarterback Phillip Sims. Freshman D.J. Dean roughed the punter, continuing the Alabama possession which still netted nothing and forced the field goal unit to get some work.
