Arkansas faces tough task in slowing down Alabama
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas defense held it together for three quarters last week at Missouri.
Sure, the unit had given up roughly 120 yards per quarter and five scoring drives by then, but three of those resulted in field goals, and the Razorbacks held a 33-23 edge heading into the final period.
That lead expanded to 40-26 with 13:15 left in the game.
But things began trending ominously when team captain and linebacker Grant Morgan and cornerback Montaric Brown were both injured and unavailable in the final quarter.
After Trelon Smith’s 15-yard touchdown run capped a lightning-quick 75-yard touchdown drive that went 7 plays and took all of 1:35 off the clock, the dam broke open on the Arkansas D.
Missouri scored three touchdowns in less than eight minutes of game time, with tailbacks Larry Rountree Jr. and Tyler Badie carving through all levels of the unit, and quarterback Connor Bazelak, facing little pressure, dropping deep balls on both edges and picking apart the middle of the field.
The Tigers racked up 297 yards on 27 plays in the final period, punctuated by Harrison Mevis’ 32-yard field goal, his fifth of the game, with no time on the clock for a 50-48 Missouri win.
For a defense that had done more with less virtually all season under firstyear coordinator Barry Odom, the 653 yards allowed, fourth-most in UA history, told the tale of the game.
The Razorbacks (3-6) have no time to mourn their circumstances, such as the injury to Morgan keeping him out of Saturday’s 11 a.m. game
against Alabama.
The No. 1 Crimson Tide (9-0) is coming to town with an explosive, balanced and dangerous offense, loaded with more weapons than Missouri, sparked by Heisman Trophy contenders at more than one spot.
Asked on Monday what concerned him most about Alabama, coach Sam Pittman kept it succinct.
“Stopping them,” Pittman replied. “I don't know that anybody has.”
The Crimson Tide is fourth in the country with 548 yards per game and third with 49.2 points per game.
Alabama nearly hit their scoring average by halftime at LSU last week, leading the defending national champions 45-14 at the break.
Quarterback Mac Jones is third in the country with 346 passing yards per game, second with 75.7% completions and a pass efficiency rating of 210.8, and has 27 touchdown passes versus 3 interceptions.
Tailback Najee Harris leads the nation with 20 rushing touchdowns and is 12th nationally with 115.3 rushing yards per game and a healthy 6.14 yards per carry.
Harris has better defensive numbers to run against because jet-speed wideouts DaVonta Smith, John Metchie III and others shred man coverage and command safety help. Smith is the SEC's alltime receiving touchdowns leader with 38 and his 15 scores this year are one shy of Amari Cooper's school record set in 2014. In the last four games, Smith has 35 catches for 749 yards and 11 touchdowns.
To hammer home the dominance, all of this is being done against an SEConly schedule.
Alabama coach Nick Saban says he never compares his teams, but the offensive numbers under coordinator Steve Sarkisian rank among the best in school history, particularly because they're All-SEC.
“We've had a lot of good players here, a lot of good offensive teams, a lot of good quarterbacks, a lot of good receivers, a lot of good runners,” Saban said Wednesday. “You know I think the thing this group does is they play really well together and they have tremendous balance and every guy has done a really good job of doing what the coaches ask them to do.
“And I think the consistency in their performance sort of reflects that. The challenge is always to keep it that way. That's certainly something that will be important for us this week.”
Jones and Smith are considered top-tier Heisman Trophy candidates with Florida quarterback Kyle Trask, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields.
But Pittman went in a completely different direction when asked if he had a Heisman Trophy vote who on the Alabama roster would earn it.
“If I was going to vote for the Heisman for Alabama, I'd vote their entire offensive line,” Pittman said.
Pittman also called the unit, anchored by tackles Alex Leatherwood (6-6, 312) and Evan Neal (6-7, 360) and massive center Landon Dickerson (6-6, 325), as good an offensive line as he'd ever seen in the college game.
“Obviously they are a very well-rounded offensive line, probably one of the best we'll face this year,” Arkansas defensive tackle Isaiah Nichols said. “Very good quarterback. Very good running back. Receiving corps also phenomenal. I think it's a good challenge for us.”
Arkansas safety Jalen Catalon said the Tide's offensive personnel is typical of the SEC.
“You're going to face great receivers, great running backs, quarterbacks, all the way down the list … the whole year,” Catalon said. “It's just another physical game with some great playmakers on the outside, a great back in the backfield with an experienced quarterback.”
Catalon said Odom and cornerbacks coach Sam Carter would have a good plan in store.
“We've just got to do our job and execute the plan that Coach Odom and Coach Carter have for us in the back end and just play our game,” he said. “If we do that, I don't see why we can't come out on top.”
The Razorbacks did not fare well against Missouri after Morgan's departure, so a much better effort is called for if they are to hang with the Tide.
“They whipped us,” Pittman said. “I mean, we had lost the edge a lot during that game. We lost the edge on a couple of long runs in the fourth quarter.”
Pittman said the Razorbacks were trying different things defensively but couldn't find the right buttons.
“We were trying some zone coverage and they would throw it underneath us on some quick outs, quick stop routes,” he said. “We tried some man coverage and we couldn't cover them man-toman. And we couldn't get pressure on the quarterback.
“On third down, we couldn't get off the field. I know it seems like a story that we talk about all the time, but really, they got some momentum. I thought that we didn't tackle well.
“Losing Grant Morgan probably hurt us a little bit in the fact that he's there for alignments. But the bottom line is they out-physicaled us in the fourth quarter.”