"Oh My Gosh" Leads Hogs To Win Over LA Tech
It definitely wasn’t a fun game to watch but the Hogs pull off the win in the season opener. The Razorbacks narrowly beat a good LA Tech team 21-20.
On what is being called “the greatest opening day in college football”, all across the country, the SEC is being crushed by unranked teams. LSU and Mississippi state have fallen to unranked teams earlier today. Thankfully Arkansas barely avoided becoming a statistic.
As I said in my pregame article here, I knew it would be a closer game than analysts said. However, I believed the Hogs would win by 21 rather than only score 21. Thanks to two missed field goals, the Hogs came out on top by a whopping one point.
Offensive Takeaways
The biggest takeaway from today on the offense is the shaky offensive line. In one game, Arkansas gave up 4 sacks, a quarter of what they gave up the entire last season. The word of the day was confusion. Hjalte Froholdt looked absolutely lost the entire game. It goes without saying, this has got to be fixed if Bielema expects to win against TCU next week.
The quarterback play was actually better than I expected. Austin Allen went 20-29 for 191 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions. If the offensive line could get stable, he could put up video game numbers later this year. The one critical thing I have to say about Allen’s game today is he needs to work on his check down. Overall though I was pleasantly surprised by his performance.
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It’s hard to get a passing game when you can’t establish a run game and Arkansas couldn’t get anything going the first half. The running back by committee policy got Rawleigh Williams most of the carries. He would finish the day with 24 carries for 96 yards and 1 touchdown. Bielema said in his post-game interview that he needs to go to Devwah Whaley more for his fresh legs.
Arkansas is built to run. Period. During the half-time show, ESPN SEC Network analyst Booger McFarland summed it up pretty well, “Arkansas is a passing team.” In order for the Hogs to succeed, they have got to get back to their bread and butter and run it down their opponents damn throat. Not shockingly, it was the run game that took them from down six to up by one with six minutes left in the game. A catch by Jeremy Sprinkle, during a play which Bielema calls “oh my gosh”, resulted in the decisive touchdown.
Defensive Takeaways
All offseason we heard from media members that this defense was going to be solid. They were wrong. I’m not trying to take away from how well LA Tech played but that was a horrific performance.
Sep 3, 2016; Fayetteville, AR, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Bret Bielema during the game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Arkansas defeated Louisiana Tech 21-20. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
The secondary was just as bad as last year and that’s really bad. I don’t know how many times I was yelling at my T.V. because they don’t jam up the receivers at the line. As a matter of fact, they don’t start to cover until the receiver is six to 8 yards off the line. The only time I saw anyone in the secondary following the quarterback’s eyes, it resulted in an interception by Dre Greenlaw. I am hoping that Paul Rhoads gets this fixed because, if this doesn’t change, TCU will beat them by 49.
Unlike the secondary, the defensive line looked better than last year. Were they amazing? No, but they did look a lot more aggressive than a year ago. I noticed a lot more penetration and putting pressure on the quarterback, which is really going to help out the secondary. They key difference is the speed and McTelvin Agim is bringing that to the table.
Players Of The Game
This game left me thinking one thing, “A win is a win is win.” I have faith that Bielema and his staff will identify and work on the issues that we saw today. At least I hope he does because if you hadn’t gathered from this article, I am nervous about TCU. We’ll save that for later and enjoy the Razorbacks being undefeated for now! Woo Pig!