LITTLE ROCK – Raise your hand if you called this: Arkansas’ defense has been the most impressive unit through two games in 2010.
For the second game in a row the Razorbacks held a team to single-digits Saturday night in a 31-7 win over Louisiana-Monroe at War Memorial Stadium. Arkansas was five minutes away from its first shutout under defensive coordinator Willy Robinson and – counting back to last week – it took 114 minutes-plus for the Hogs to give up their first touchdown of the year.
“From the sideline it’s a different point-of-view and they look lightning fast,” said Robinson, the third-year defensive coordinator. “They can really read, run and adjust pretty fast.
“These two games are tough football teams that we played. Now we’ll walk into stadiums with the caliber of players that we have. We have very much been looking forward to this third week of the season. I think we’re very much ready for it.”
It was the defense that gave the No. 14 Razorbacks some hope after the offense sputtered through the first half. Arkansas led 7-0 at halftime, allowing just 58 yards of total offense on 28 plays before the intermission.
After giving up 187 total yards against Tennessee Tech last week, the Razorbacks held ULM to 188 yards Saturday. Arkansas failed to force a turnover last week, but bettered that with two this time around.
It’s a far cry from the second game last year when Arkansas gave up 52 points and more than 500 yards to Georgia. Of course the Warhawks (0-1) don’t match the caliber of that opponent, but it is evident this isn’t the same unit that ranked at or near the bottom of the Southeastern Conference in several statistical categories a year ago.
“Defensively, I think anyone can tell we’re way ahead of where we were,” Arkansas defensive end Jake Bequette said. “We feel we’re making progress. We know those definitely weren’t SEC opponents but you’ve got to play who you’re playing. We’ll take the positives from this and move on.”
Perhaps the best indication of how far Arkansas has come was with 10:32 remaining. The Warhawks trailed 17-0 and faced a fourth-and-long from their 37. In recent years it might have been an easy decision for the opposition to go for it in that situation – after all, with a touchdown ULM would have been right back in the game. But the Warhawks elected to punt and Arkansas responded with a quick touchdown drive to put the game out of reach.
Arkansas’ offense hit its stride in the second half. Ryan Mallett, who struggled in the first half, recovered with a strong showing. Mallett completed 28 of 43 passes for 400 yards and three touchdowns. He added a rushing touchdown in the third quarter.
His favorite receiver was junior Greg Childs, who recorded a career night with 12 catches – just one shy of the school’s record – for 146 yards. He scored on receptions of 19 and 18 yards.
“They couldn’t cover Childs,” Mallett said. “I don’t think anyone in the country can cover Greg Childs one-on-one.
“We know how we can execute and we know that if we don’t then we can get frustrated. You can’t do that; especially going into SEC play. That is something we will address Monday.”
The rushing game continues to be the Razorbacks’ biggest struggle. After a lackluster effort in the first half last week against Tennessee Tech, Arkansas didn’t fare much better this time around. The so-called “four-headed monster” of Broderick Green, Ronnie Wingo, Dennis Johnson and Knile Davis combined for 98 yards on 25 carries. Johnson left the game in the third quarter with an apparent injury to the ribs.
Mallett scored the team’s only rushing touchdown – a 1-yard quarterback sneak. Arkansas looked to get its speedy backs more touches in the passing game with several screen calls throughout the night. While most went for minimal gains, Wingo’s 35-yard reception with 3:23 remaining in the fourth quarter capped the scoring.
“Offensively, sometimes you have to wear them out,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “I get the feeling sometimes with our offense, that they think they can just go out and everything good is going to happen right away. You just have to wear them out. We didn’t play the way we wanted to play in the first half. We certainly didn’t convert the third downs (6-for-14) and that’s really what hurt us in the first half. I was probably stubborn in trying to hit some runs in there instead of just throwing it every down.”
Despite the frustration for much of the game, Petrino summed it up best immediately following the game.
“We’re 2-0 and that’s the good thing,” Petrino said.
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The defense has played great so far. We will all find out just how “for real” they really are next Saturday. The offense needs to get a better start, receivers and backs need to tuck the ball away better, and the line needs to start opening some holes for the backs. Then again, not every team the Hogs play this year will be putting 8 or more men in the box to stop the run the way ULM did tonight.
All-in-all, I’ll take a 24 point victory every time.
Don’t get too cocky Mr. Robinson. Georgia at home is a different beast and could easily humble you and your “lightning fast” defense. And our offensive line better improve in a hurry or Mallet’s Heisman campaign is going to take a nose dive in the next few games.
Finally… Time to open the playbook…
We only showed about 20% of our offense during the first two games…
The defense is improved, true, (if it weren’t, we would have given up more points, like we did last year) but the big test will come this week against Georgia. If we can get our offense on track, we should be able to move the ball well against Georgia, if their tackling is the same as it was against South Carolina. They simply didn’t wrap up the ball carrier, and South Carolina’s freshman RB just bounced off defenders all afternoon. It reminded me of our own tackling display last year against Georgia (whenever we bothered to get near their ball carriers, that is). I think Coach Petrino is right, the offense seems to think all they have to do is take the field, and they will score every time. When they don’t they get frustrated. Ryan and the offense need to stop pressing so much. They are very talented, and they just need to relax and execute.
Question is, has Petrino revealed his hand much, if any at all? Our offense so far has been pretty straight forward. You have to believe he’s held plenty back. And I’m not willing to put Mallett’s subpar first half entirely on his shoulders. He had his share of overthrows, but there were several passes that should have been caught and weren’t. I think once they realize they can not score on every single possession they’ll be fine. Relax, take what the defense gives you.
The D is for real. D-Line is bigger (Davis is a beast) and quicker, LB’s are solid, fast, in proper position, hide their blitzes much better and more physical, and the d-backs are breaking to the ball better and seem more confident of their coverage schemes.
The special teams look very solid this time around… we actually have a big-time leg at punter even if he kicked a couple into the end-zone that a more seasoned punter could’ve buried inside the ten, the kick-offs are routinely nasty to handle and in the end-zone now and coverage looks disciplined but aggressive. Haven’t seen a pressure field-goal in front of a hostile crowd converted yet, but the long snapper looks good and the timing on shorter kicks was solid.
There’s lots of groaning about the offense but the stats shows:
509 YPG total offense
5.0 yds per rush
Mallett 51/73 w/ 3 Int’s
Even though the first two games were not against SEC teams, the numbers are impressive. The question is how will the O fare against SEC level competition and I believe the answer will be… just fine at UGA next weekend with the real test in Fayetteville on the 25th against ‘Bama.
I saw two things that worried me last night… Mallett’s composure and the back being knocked back at the line.
Mallett’s psyche has been a concern of mine for some time… readers might remember my suggestion (as tahoehog) that Mallett get hooked up with a sports psychologist in the off-season. Obviously that didn’t happen judging by his histrionics in the first half when things weren’t going well. He had a handful of awful passes, almost all high which will get us killed against a great secondary. This great young quarterback HAS to get control of his emotions or he’s going to continue to struggle in the face of a gameplan that’s not going well. CBP talked about wearing the opposition down but that won’t happen against top-tier teams in the SEC or in the BCS hunt. Mallett needs to work with a good sports psychologist soon… period.
The O-line had another mediocre game and I can’t understand why… perhaps technique problems the coaches will spot on video today, perhaps no fire in the belly, perhaps disruption by the ULM scheme (not unlikely since their head coach and our O-Line coach worked together at UNLV). Whatever it is, it needs to get better by this weekend and fixed for good by the 25th if we hope to beat the Tide.
As far as the backs, they’ve been getting to the corners nicely but between the tackles is another matter altogether. Unless our interior O-Linemen start pushing their D-Linemen around a bit more, we’ll struggle to move the ball on the ground and let opposing D’s force more reliance on Mallett’s arm and psyche.
MastersHog, there was a column already written here. You go on long enough a person might think you decided to write another one!
The offense will be fine. It’s good that they had a game like this early, get it out of their system, and realize that they won’t score every time. The defense has looked very good so far. Size in the middle, speed to the ball, nice coverage on passes, plenty of pressure in the backfield. Special teams look good too. Tejada booming kickoffs, Hocker hitting extra points and his only FG so far, and we finally got to see Breeding punt the ball, and he boomed one that I know went at least 60 yards. I am confident that Arkansas can win at GA and then give Bama some serious fits.
It seems to me (and I hope it proves to be true) that playing two games before playing against SEC competition will better prepare us for the step-up in competition. Even though the offense shredded UGA last year, the defense stayed in the dorms, and I think some of that had to do with the open date right after the opening game. If we manage to beat both UGA and Alabama this year, I’ll wish we didn’t have the open week after the Alabama game, but it still comes at a better time than last year’s open date. We can get into a groove this year with the open date moved back, and I hope it serves us well.
Marcus Lattimore the South Carolina running back was not running against 7 or 8 in the box,thats why he ran all thru Georiga,if they play their regular D,maybe the Hog backs can make some nice runs,if the Hogs can keep from being their own worst enemy,they will beat Georiga.
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