3:24 p.m. 45-17 Arkansas — The Razorbacks surrendered a 33-yard touchdown in the last minute to UAB, but outside of that they destroyed the Blazers’ supposedly vaunted passing game, holding the Blazers to 62 yards through the air (including that score). In fact, Arkansas’s defense pretty much made UAB not only one-dimensional, the Hogs at times made them no-dimensional in one of the more solid defensive performances by the Razorbacks in some time.
Arkansas had a terrific offensive first half in ripping to a 35-0 halftime lead. Quarterback Brandon Allen and the Hogs seemed to lose their edge in the third quarter and finished with 484 total yards. Jonathan Williams led the running game with 154 yards on 18 carries, an 8.5 yards per carry average. Alex Collins didn’t reach that 100-yard mark we predicted, but finished with 83 yards on 15 carries (5.5 per carry). Allen completed 15 of 24 passes for 205 yards, and was just 2 of 7 in the second half before ceding his role to younger brother Austin Allen for the remainder of the game.
Of course, the key play everyone will be talking about for years was the 6-yard pass thrown by usual starting left guard Sebastian Tretola to snapper Alan D’Appolonio for the Hogs’ fourth touchdown, in the second quarter.
Bret Bielema said after the game he enjoyed drawing up trick plays like this because “it’s fun and it helps me interact more with our players.” The Hogs that spoke about it in the post-game interviews were happy about it as well. Tretola struck a Heisman pose after his throw, and all in all it was a fun day with no major injuries and another week for starting linebacker Brooks Ellis and usual corner Henri Toliver to rest for next week’s showdown in Starkville with No. 1-ranked Mississippi State.
Most games always leave something glaring that can serve as a focus for practice next week, and Arkansas’ special teams will get that attention, which probably couldn’t come at a better time going into a major road test against the country’s top-ranked team. Punt and kickoff coverages were bothersome — one of UAB’s scores came on a 100-yard runback by JJ Nelson in the third quarter — but the placement kick problems appear to be settled. Adam McFain booted a 49-yard field goal in the third quarter to make it 38-0, the Hogs’ largest lead of the day, and was Arkansas’ longest field goal of the season by 27 yards. Sam Irwin-Hill also seemed refocused on punts, hitting one 54 yards after his temporary replacement, Toby Baker, had kicked a low spiral 36 yards that Nelson returned 35 yards to the UA 9. The UAB futility on offense and the superb play of the Hogs’ defense was spelled out on the next series when the Hogs pushed UAB back 20 yards, forcing a field goal. Later, after a DJ Dean foul-up trying to pick up a punt, the UA defense had a successful goal line stand early in the fourth quarter.
2:02 p.m. 45-10 Arkansas — More near disaster from the Arkansas punt return team. This time, Dean is benched and senior Demetrius Wilson tries to pull a “Reggie Fish” and field a rocket over his head inside the 10-yard line. He touches it, but the ball isn’t recovered before it goes out of the end zone for a touchback.
Ridiculous.
And with that and Austin Allen in and the Hogs not doing a lot offensively, we’re temporarily shutting down to head to the post-game interviews.
1:56 p.m. — Martrell Spaight, the Hogs’ senior linebacker from North Little Rock, is this year’s Crip Hall Award winner.
The “announced” attendance was 61,000-something. I was chortling too hard after the “61…” that I missed whatever the last three numbers were. That’s a joke.
1:55 p.m. 45-10 Arkansas — sorry, left off time and score on that goal line stand by Arkansas.
Big rush from DE Deatrich Wise on fourth down, and UAB fails to score from about the 2 on four downs. Three tries into the Hogs’ middle netted a loss, and on fourth down the Blazers tried to pass instead, but Wise was wise and hurried Briscoe into an incompletion in the end zone. Arkansas takes over at the 4.
Related Posts
