8:49 p.m. 45-21 Auburn, final — The game has been over for about an hour now. The post-game reception area for Hog quotes was hotter than any place in Jordan-Hare Stadium, which was a steamer all day and on into tonight. There is a reason college football didn’t start until the third week in September back in the old days when I was a kid.
The turning point ended up being Auburn’s hit on Brandon Allen and the ensuing interception runback for a touchdown that followed, running the Tigers’ lead at that point to 35-21. Auburn controlled the football and the game the entire second half, and this stat should sum up Arkansas’ fortunes: The Hogs rushed for just 2 yards in the second half. Auburn gave Arkansas virtually no other option but to pass or try to run wide in the second half and the Hogs simply could not execute what the needed to do. They had no downfield vertical throws, and the wide stuff didn’t work well at all against Auburn’s speed. The trap play that Arkansas had run so effectively in the first half wasn’t there in the second.
Nick Marshall took over at quarterback in the second half for Auburn, and except for the Tigers suffering one miscue in the third quarter, he managed Auburn’s offense as efficiently as he did last season in taking the Tigers to a 12-2 mark and a spot in the last BCS title game opposite eventual winner Florida State.
Arkansas showed enough spunk overcoming an early 14-point deficit to indicate that the Hogs might be better in 2013. This is not the same Arkansas team that fans will see also in October, when the sophomores and freshmen throughout the depth chart grow up.
Still, Arkansas had no answers the second time it fell down 14 points, and even after a lengthy rain delay, the Hogs had little punch left in the second half. I’m betting the humidity, the most they are likely to experience this year, was a little culprit, though no one was blaming that. Auburn’s possession time with Marshall did wear down the Arkansas defensive front, however, in that long, long, long second half.
7:37 p.m. 45-21 — We got our answer as to how Arkansas might come back out of the long rain delay: apparently beaten and not with much fight. Arkansas missed four tackles in Cameron Artis-Payne on Auburn’s first carry from its 15 after a 52-yard punt by Sam Irwin-Hill, and there was more of the same on a 8-play, 85-yard drive. Backup running back Corey Grant capped the drive with a 3-yard run, right after scampering 24 yards on a bad move by a redshirt freshman running himself out of the play.
Arkansas’ offensive possession before the Auburn TD was rather futile with the exception of a Brandon Allen sneak for a first down.
Arkansas has rushed for 2 yards in the second half.
7:22 38-21 — The biggest question coming now is, has Auburn been able to maintain its edge through this long break, or has Arkansas been able to keep the belief that it could still pull this game out.
7:17 pm 38-21 — The teams have returned to the field for a 10 minute warmup. Meanwhile, a torrential rain came through a few minutes ago; it has slowed down considerably.
I took a few minutes during the lengthy delay to see how some Hog fans are reacting on message boards. It appears one steady thought is that Arkansas’ coaches didn’t do enough “adjusting” at halftime compared with Auburn, and that has been the difference. While it is true that Auburn defensively has taken away Arkansas’ trap play that Alex Collins picked up beau coup yards on in the first half, and that Auburn has ramped up the run blitzes as well, I can’t believe and won’t believe that Arkansas’ coaches didn’t expect some of that. The answer to Auburn lining up 10 within a couple yards of the line of scrimmage is to pass over it, but Arkansas hasn’t been able to do that. Arkansas hasn’t been able to get many receivers separated from the press coverage they are getting, and Auburn’s agressiveness against the run has also helped it get pressure on Brandon Allen. He doens’t have a lot of opportunity.
The next thought seems to be that somehow Brandon Allen should have been smart enough to throw the ball away when Therezie was on him on the INT, but that has to be one of hte more stupid thoughts I’ve seen. For one, Allen saw like the rest of us that he actually, for once, had a receiver getting behind the Auburn defense and was going for him. Second, Therezie is an incredibly quick talent who was on Allen faster than he probably could have throught “I better throw this away.” If Therezie doesn’t get there, Allen might have connected for 6 points with the open receiver. Instead, Auburn scored on the pick. There’s more but the game is restarting now.
554 p.m. 38-21 AU — This gives us a good chance to catch up on the stats. Since halftime, Auburn has piled up 180 yards to Arkansas’ 43. That’s about it, that and the interception return for a touchdown that has allowed Auburn to outscore Arkansas 17-0 since the break.
Related Posts
