Razorbacks rewind

OFFENSE WR Treylon Burks

Burks caught 8 of 10 targets for 179 yards and 2 touchdowns. The junior from Warren, playing with an injury to his right side, had scores from 15 and 66 yards as he broke tackles and out-ran defensive backs.

DEFENSE LB Grant Morgan

Morgan logged a game-high 11 tackles including 5 solo stops. The Greenwood native, who also had two quarterback hurries, was the only Razorback with double-figure tackles.

Shyheim Carter (44, 2018) and Trevon Diggs (84, 2019).

Arkansas had picked off 15 Alabama passes in that span, and had 13 games that did not feature an interception and nine games that did.

In between Stoerner and Burks on the interceptions thrown against Alabama list, in chronological order: Robby Hampton, Zak Clark, Tarvaris Jackson, Matt Jones (5 in 3 games), Ryan Sorahan, Robert Johnson, Mitch Mustain (3 in 1 game), Casey Dick (4 in 2 games), Tyler Wilson (2 in 3 games), Ryan Mallett (4 in 2 games), Brandon Mitchell, Brandon Allen (6 in 4 games), Austin Allen (3 in 1 game), Cole Kelley, Ty Storey and Nick Starkel (3 in 1 game).

Bryce remarks

Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan was very complimentary of Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, who torched the Razorbacks for 559 yards and 5 touchdowns on 31-of-40 passing.

“We’re playing another Heisman candidate,” Morgan said. “I feel like every other week we’ve got someone up for the Heisman we’re playing.

“Bryce is a very good athlete and he’s a very good player. You could see how he extended plays throughout the game with his feet. We’d hug up, we’d send an extra guy and he’d find a way to get out or he would find a way to kind of elude a defender and be able to make a play.”

Morgan called the sophomore Young a good kid.

“I hope he wins the Heisman because of the way he handles himself and how he kind of talked after the game,” Morgan said. “You could tell he has a good head on his shoulders so I hope he wins the Heisman.”

Burks goes big

Treylon Burks’ performance marked an alltime high for a Razorback in receiving yards in a game against the Crimson Tide.

Burks had 8 catches for 179 yards and 2 touchdowns.

That marked the fourth 100-yard receiving performance by an Arkansas player in the series. The previous high had been 146 yards on five catches by Jared Cornelius on Oct. 8, 2016. Jarius Wright caught six passes for 131 yards against Alabama on Sept. 25, 2010, and Anthony Eubanks had seven catches for 104 yards, including the game-winning 29-yard touchdown pass from Clint Stoerner in a 17-16 win at Alabama on Sept. 20, 1997.

Good ‘Will’ hunt

The Razorbacks did a decent job keeping Alabama linebacker Will Anderson from taking over the game as he had done against other opponents.

Anderson had one sack and accounted for 11 tackles, 7 solo and 2 quarterback hurries.

“They did a pretty good job up front,” quarterback KJ Jefferson said. “I mean, he made some plays late in the game, but from an offensive line standpoint, they did a great job up front as far as pass pro.

“I had a lot of time back there in the pocket. They also created running lanes for me and the running backs. Up front they did a tremendous job.”

Anderson’s sack took him to 13.5 for the season, tied for the national lead with Army linebacker Andre Carter II.

Big yards

Alabama’s 559 passing yards not only marked a school single-game record for Bryce Young, they also had one of the all-time performances in the SEC.

The only bigger passing game in conference play came in last year’s season opener, when Mississippi State’s KJ Costello passed for 623 yards in Coach Mike Leach’s debut, a 44-34 upset of defending national champion LSU on the road.

Fake pick

Alabama Coach Nick Saban said the Tide were aware Arkansas might fake a field goal, as the Razorbacks did successfully their prior game at LSU on Reid Bauer’s 23-yard run. However, Saban said, the Tide had a stroke of bad luck when Bauer popped up with the snap and lofted a jump pass to Blake Kern for a 32-yard score early in the fourth quarter.

The touchdown drew the Razorbacks within 34-28 with 11:24 left in the game.

“We were trying to cover the guy and we ran into the official,” Saban said.

A Tide defender turned to run with Kern but bumped an official and got a step behind. Kern broke a tackle inside the 5 while going into the end zone, leaving the Tide defense frustrated.

Third and fourth

Arkansas had its best game of the season at converting on third and fourth downs. The Razorbacks were 7 of 16 on third downs and 3 of 3 on fourth downs, including Trey Knox’s 16-yard catch on fourth and 11 and Reid Bauer’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Blake Kern on a fake field goal.

“We gave up a couple of big plays but the big thing was they were like 10 of 19 on third and fourth down, so when we had opportunities to get off the field we didn’t get off the field,” Alabama Coach Nick Saban said.

Four sacks

The Razorbacks recorded a season-high four sacks, one each by Simeon Blair, Hayden Henry, Zach Williams and Eric Gregory. Henry’s sack, a 16-yarder that forced the Crimson Tide into a long field goal which was missed, should have been credited as a combo sack with Jashaud Stewart, who had quarterback Bryce Young at the ankles as Henry went high.

After going three consecutive games without a sack against Georgia, Ole Miss and Auburn, the Razorbacks have three-plus sacks in four consecutive games. Arkansas had three sacks each against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Mississippi State and LSU prior to Alabama.

100-yard rusher

Brian Robinson Jr. became the fourth player to rush for 100 yards against the Razorbacks this season while setting an opponent seasonhigh. Robinson had 122 yards on 27 carries. The others to hit the century mark were Ole Miss’ Henry Parrish Jr. (111) and Snoop Conner (110) and LSU’s Tyrion Davis-Price (106).