Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

10/1/2010 at 2:12pm

Arkansas led No.1 Alabama 20-14 entering the fourth quarter as the Saturday shadows lengthened and the Razorbacks began struggling to get receivers open. It’s a little too easy to say, “Ryan Mallett threw away the game” with his three interceptions, two in the fourth quarter.

It’s possible that the Hogs were depending too much on too few. Not just Mallett. Late in the game, some terrific athletes – D.J. Williams, Joe Adams, Greg Childs, Jarius Wright – looked mighty helpless against defenders who often were younger, smaller, less experienced.

Later on Saturday, if you had any stomach left for football, Oklahoma was on TV, playing at Cincinnati. The Sooners had to pass like crazy to escape with a 2-point win. Oklahoma has the leading receiver in college football, Ryan Broyles, who at 5-foot-11, 183 pounds, is about the size of Arkansas' Jarius Wright. Broyles catches 10 passes per game, but he does not play every snap.

Oklahoma threw passes to five wideouts, two tight ends, two tailbacks and a fullback.

Arkansas threw passes to four wideouts, one tight end and three tailbacks.

OU completed at least two passes to nine different receivers. Arkansas, seven. OU had five wide receivers catch at least two passes; Arkansas had three who didn't catch anything at all.

The fourth wide receiver at Arkansas is sophomore Cobi Hamilton. He had one pass thrown his direction on Saturday, didn’t hold onto it. De’Anthony Curtis and Lance Ray are listed on the depth chart, but it’s hard to take that seriously.

Fans underestimate how hard it is for receivers to keep running routes against the same defenders, to show them something new. Just like a good pitcher…never underestimate the value of a good changeup. The third fastball is worth much less than the first (not to mention the 40th).

Nobody was getting open in the fourth quarter. Tide defenders were riding the receivers, wearing on them. A couple of times they even hit receivers before the ball arrived, but they had been so close in coverage anyway that they got away with it.

The national media, drawn in by the matchup of two Heisman hopefuls, pilloried Mallett for bad decisions. The interception Mallett threw in the end zone before halftime was hard to understand, but it was third and goal after two failed plays. Second error, trying to force it to Greg Childs, was third and 11 from the Hogs’ 19. Both cases, nobody open, last chance to make a play.

The third interception was an off-balance throw, but it should have been second and 4 at the Alabama 43 not second and 9. A false start penalty created an obvious passing situation, which meant heavy pressure.

Alabama’s defense shrugged off the limited success Arkansas had running the ball with sophomore Knile Davis. If Broderick Green was on the field, the Tide was confident it could restrain him in base defense. Six of Green’s last seven carries went nowhere regardless of down and distance. The fastest tailback, Ronnie Wingo, apparently is just a pass-catcher. Zero carries.

Wingo, 6-3, 227, with sprinter’s speed, coveted by Alabama, OU and Tennessee, had star credentials just like the men in the Tide backfield. Green, for goodness’s sake, signed with Southern Cal out of high school. Davis was pursued by Nebraska, LSU, OU and Georgia Tech. No “recruiting stars” mismatch here, but once they entered college, the Tide’s Heisman winner Ingram and sophomore Trent Richardson developed at an accelerated rate.

Regardless of rep, the Hogs’ best runner was junior Dennis Johnson, who had been an unheralded recruit from Texarkana. Johnson also was a terrific kickoff returner. He had great top-end speed but also the ability to change directions quickly, which reduced the blocking burden of the rest of the team. Johnson gave Arkansas the ability to produce breakaway runs with mediocre run blocking, which made the whole offense better.

Bobby Petrino has been unable to establish Wingo, the most heralded young tailback at Fayetteville, as a runner. Wingo had averaged 5.8 yards per carry, best of the available players, but that was on a handful of attempts. Wingo was futile in pass protection. While Davis started, the 250-pounder Green played most of the first 20 minutes of game time. Green was deemed better at blocking, and apparently blocking was judged more important than running.

Green’s last recorded statistic was allowing Mark Barron to sack Mallett in the red zone, when Arkansas was ahead 17-7.

On the other side, Alabama got the most of out its excellent tailbacks.

Richardson, who is 5-11 and 220 pounds, is strong, sprinter-fast, hard to touch and harder to tackle. Richardson returned a kickoff from the goal line for 39 yards. He made equally great plays in kickoff coverage. Arkansas loads its coverage teams with backups, which is asking for trouble. The Tide wants to make big plays on special teams, and in this game it helped Bama get a 14-yard edge in average field position.

Without Johnson, the Hogs did well to get past the 20 on kickoffs. In the run game, no breakaway threat. Wingo is solely a receiver it appears, which allows the defense to ignore him as a runner. Davis made a handful of good plays, after he dropped a screen pass in the first quarter. Green had several good early runs then got stuffed.

If Petrino were giving Davis or Wingo 15 carries a game, would they perform better? Petrino wouldn’t have given Johnson 15 carries a game if he were encased in titanium. Something about “practice habits.”

No, here’s where Petrino’s preference for the big back came back and bit him hard. The not-big but tough-running Michael Dyer fortifies the West leader. The big back Green looked slow and unable to break even a solo tackle against Alabama. Green’s no-goes helped to turn two promising drives into field goals.  If Davis had been granted a dozen carries, how would the game have changed? Might have gotten Mallett sacked a lot more. More evidence of a substitution pattern that signals too much.

Petrino has been labeled as pass-happy with insufficient attention to the run game and defense, and this game did nothing but put nice, bright stitches into that label.

Only, Petrino’s game plan for Alabama might have worked, if not for all the picks. Or, if not for three penalties.

Two weeks in a row, Joe Adams committed emotional penalties that really hurt. He got a 15-yarder on the Georgia sideline, which helped the Bulldogs stop the Hogs and tie the game. This time Adams uselessly grabbed the face mask of Alabama free safety Robert Lester, who was riding him out of bounds on an end around. Adams’s screwup kept the Hogs from advancing on Lester’s out-of-bounds tackle. Should have been first down at the 50.

The way Arkansas had settled into running nothing but midrange pass patterns that got nobody open, the drive still might have led to a punt. But it would have been first and 10 at midfield not second and 6 at the Arkansas 39.  One down harder to stop, 11 yards closer to the goal line.

Another wince-inducing penalty was when DeMarcus Love was flagged for holding on a good run by Davis. This was on second and 10 at the Arkansas 20, when the Hogs still held a 20-17 lead and needed to will 6 minutes off the clock. The hold did not enable the run, just erased it. Third and 3 might not have prompted Mallett to force a desperate 25-yard pass, as he did on third and 11, two plays after the hold. That prayer was intercepted by Lester, setting up the game-deciding score.

The last damaging flag was when D.J. Williams jumped on first down at the Alabama 49 during Arkansas’s final possession. Having 15 yards to go for another first down seriously hampers a two-minute drill. The defense can give less respect to the already-meager run threat, and the offense usually has to counter with a pass-only set. After a short completion, it was second and 9 not 4, still long yardage, opening the door to another heavy pass rush. When Mallett threw that last interception, he was forced to get rid of the football on an obvious passing down that was too easy to stop. The first down penalty meant that much.

It’s unfair to blame everything on Mallett without recognizing the commonality of the three situations that led to his errant throws. This may be a good place to bring in Arkansas’s second possession of the game.

The Hogs had opened the game like lightning, 31 yards to Jarius Wright, then left to Wingo, who took the pass 43 yards for a touchdown just 50 seconds into the game. Defense swarmed an Ingram run and smothered an end around. Alabama QB Greg McElroy, pressured, failed to connect with Marquis Maze on a screen, three and out. After a punt, Bama’s rattled defense contributed 20 yards of penalties, and the Razorbacks were right back to their 45.

First down, Davis had green before him but dropped a screen pass. Second, Adams turned a contested catch into 6 yards. Third and 4, Mallett struggled mightily to rearrange the protection as Alabama overloaded the front. He couldn’t get a play called; the play clock ran out, but guard Wade Grayson was named for a false start. Third and 9, same thing, fire drill that China on a bad day would put to shame, play clock expired, but D.J. Williams flagged. Third and 14, Wingo caught a frantic dump pass as the rush came, and Arkansas punted from its 47. Shortly thereafter, Ingram ran 54 yards for a tying touchdown.

Initial question is – what the heck happened? Why not call timeout instead of letting the play clock go to zero + asking your guys to hold a stance that long? Then, why not check into a run? Why even have a running back in the game? Third and 4 should be an acceptable time to run with the football. Checking into third and 14 should not be in the playbook.

If Alabama felt it had to gamble, Arkansas needed to attack the areas left vulnerable, and it often did not. Being impotent in the run game, Arkansas allowed the Tide to manage Mallett into long-odds situations. Eventually, it mattered.

Case in both points:
•   Arkansas 17-7, middle third quarter. Mallett converted a fourth and 2 by finding Adams for 18 yards against the weak coverage of a safety.
•   First down at the Alabama 20, Green ran off left tackle, the weak side, for a yard. Wasn’t the first time he made the wrong cut.
•   Second and 9, Arkansas had three receivers lined up left. D.J. Williams was lined up tight to the right tackle. Mallett was in the shotgun with Green at his hip. Bama strong safety Mark Barron was on the line of scrimmage outside the OLB, threatening blitz. Williams and Green stayed in to block, allowing the Tide to leave the entire right side without pass defense. Barron sacked Mallett.
•   Third and 16, a screen to Wingo lost 5 more. That screen would have been nice one down earlier.
•   Field goal instead of touchdown. Four-point defeat.

Did Bama take advantage of Petrino’s play design, or did Mallett mess up by not adjusting the play on second and 9? Attacking the direction of the blitz is impossible if no receiver is in the area. And why no one got Barron is a good question.

Let’s recap:
1.   Pass, pass, stuffed run, pass, INT on third and goal.
2.   Pass, 2-yard run, pass, false start, sack, pass, pass, pass, stuffed run, sack, screen pass for -5, settle for field goal.
3.   Run, run, run, pass (inc), pass (inc), punt; pass, run negated by hold, pass, INT on third and 11.
4.   Pass (inc), pass, interference, pass, false start, pass, INT on second and 9.

The flavors: Fail to run as a change of pace, creating obvious passing situations; run till it’s obvious, creating obvious passing situations; pass nonstop till it’s obvious.

Arkansas fell into waiting for Mallett to make a big play against the odds, because the offensive system had ceased to produce them. A great defensive system can keep great athletes from making big plays. That Mallett took the bait is understandable. Deep down, he couldn’t have believed the Razorbacks could stop the Tide again.

No one expected Arkansas to be able to stop the Bama offense at all, so the number of stops was a huge surprise. Kept them from scoring five times, cut down another 8-minute drive to a field goal. Before the game, anybody would have accepted that.

McElroy’s two interceptions stemmed from his shortcomings. McElroy had never been good throwing on third downs, on in any obvious passing situation. His stats were a product of play-action all day, of not being the defense’s target. Andru Stewart and Rudell Crim made great plays on the football to grab McElroy’s undisguised deliveries, one on third and goal, the other after three straight run plays.

After McElroy took a third-and-long sack to kill the Tide’s first possession of the second half, the Bama braintrust went to the wildcat on the next third down. McElroy’s probation was brief. When Alabama got the ball trailing by 6 early in the fourth quarter, McElroy saved them. He converted third downs with passes three times, leading the Tide deep into the red zone.

McElroy ate a sack on third and 9, hammered by Tenarius Wright, but by that point the play calling had gone too vanilla. Getting a field goal was invaluable, though; it kept Arkansas from needing just a field goal to retake the lead at the end.

The Arkansas defense couldn’t stop Ingram in the wildcat after Mallett’s second pick left the Tide 12 yards away from taking the lead. There’s never a good time to allow Ingram within 12 yards of the end zone.

Arkansas had plenty of defense to support a team effort that would have included one or two fewer interceptions.

Randy Reece, a former sportswriter and now an investment analyst, puts his numbers and statistics to Arkansas Razorbacks sports and offers regular opinions on a variety of websites, including this one. He helps moderate the ArkansasSports360.com forums.

Tagged: Randy Reece, Ryan Mallett, Bobby Petrino, Knile Davis, Broderick Green, Ronnie Wingo Jr., Joe Adams, Southeastern Conference, Greg Childs, Jarius Wright, DeMarcus Love, Greg McElroy, Mark Ingram, Nick Saban, Trent Richardson, Alabama Crimson Tide