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!
8:24 p.m. 42-0 Alabama — I’m not even sure why Arkansas would make the defensive call I just saw from the Hogs 24 on second and 10 down 35-0. Arkansas blitzed from the top with a LB and DE, dropped the opposite defensive end back in coverage, and the only linebacker left in the middle, Braylon Mitchell, took a receiver off the line in coverage, leaving the middle wide open. And, of course, T.J. Yeldon, the only back in the backfield, ran 24 yards on the draw play, breaking it out to the right and breaking yet another futile Alan Turner tackle from the strong safety position, for the Tide’s sixth touchdown.
Jeez, there is still 8 minutes left in the third quarter.
8:07 p.m. 35-0 Alabama — Keon Hatcher fumbled the kickoff. That’s about all you have to say. Alabama had a short field and scored another easy one.
I’m not sure who had coverage on tight end O.J. Howard on a 17-yard touchdown reception from A.J. McCarron. Whoever had coverage wasn’t there. Jarrett Lake was the closest linebacker and he looked like he was limping trying to keep up Howard after the catch. Most of Arkansas’ secondary appeared to be in man-to-man, but Howard was allowed to move on the shallow cross from right to left and nobody took him.
7:45 p.m. — Arkansas’ defense quit bringing the fight on South Carolina’s last five possessions last week, and it seems to be mostly a continuation of the same this week. Alabama has had to punt once.
Arkansas trailed Alabama 28-0 the first time the Hogs met the Tide as SEC members, and that’s the score tonight. So, we’ve come full circle.
Arkansas has 137 yards total offense, 74 passing and 63 running. Alabama has put up its methodic 270 yards as we figured. We knew T.J. Yeldon would be a problem, but backup TB Kenyon Drake has been terrific with more speed and moves, and his presence in relief of Yeldon seems to have been a shock to the Hog defenders, who have trouble anyway. Drake has 85 yards on six carries, a 14.2 yards-per-carry average. Yeldon has carried eight times for 47 yards.
Senior Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron has completed 12 of 16 passes for 138 yards. And 8.6 yards per pass and 9.6 yards per rush average is tough to deal with. Arkansas is average 3.3 per rush and 5.7 per pass, and I think we all expected that against this Tide defense.
Arkansas’ only chance to get on the board was a 40-yard field goal by Zach Hocker that was blocked.
This stat probably says it all: punter Sam Irwin-Hill is Arkansas’ leading rusher with one 12-yard carry on a faked punt. If you call, he was Arkansas’ leading passer by average per attempt at Rutgers, again on a faked punt.
7:41 p.m. 28-0 Alabama — I’m not sure what Alan Turner was doing, but he didn’t even try to help Carroll Washington in coverage against the speedy Amare Cooper, and Alabama strikes again just before halftime.
Another five play drive covering 72 yards. A.J. McCarron made a nice deep fade throw and Cooper, who had Washington pressing him in coverage, made a little juke right and then sped to the end zone. Turner looked over like he was trying to figure out just what was going on. Apparently, coverage was not on his mind.
Arkansas’ safeties, for the umpteenth time said on this blog, are simply terrible, not SEC quality. Not even close.
To make matters worse, Rohan Gaines was hurt again on the drive. He’s walking, but he has had a bothersome knee injury all season, and it kept him out of three games earlier this year.
In case you’re really wanting to read blog posts the rest of the night, I’m going to post the halftime stats and then any really newsworthy notes on occassion. Follow me on Twitter, where I can keep the pithy comments brief.
7:32 p.m. 21-0 Alabama — You don’t see a guy coming in from the side get many field goals these days, but Alabama CB Deon Belue got his hands on Zach Hocker’s attempt and kept Arkansas from getting on the board late in the first half.
Arkansas had a nice drive off its 10 thanks mostly to nice Brandon Allen completions to Javontee Herndon — the running game has been stuffed of late, though Jonathan Williams did get a 10-yard run to start the drive.
When the march reached the Alabama 22, however, Allen started looking like an inexperienced sophomore again against a well-school defense. Alabama had a safety — and, by the way, it’s their great HaHa Clinton-Dix, who missed the past two weeks because of NCAA problems — deep but he still tried for tight end Hunter Henry right down the middle and was lucky it wasn’t intercepted in the end zone.
Then, on third down after stuffing Williams for a loss of 1 on second down, Alabama fooled Allen by showing a big blitz but dropping a backer into zone coverage, right where Allen tried to throw it under duress, and again he was lucky it wasn’t picked.
Hocker had been a sure thing for Arkansas on field goals this season, hitting eight of eight so far, until the block.
