Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

10/9/2011 at 9:33am

Image by Mark Wagner

Auburn running back Michael Dyer can't find running room against the Arkansas defense.

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas' defensive effort against a run-oriented and so-far ridiculously fortunate Auburn football team got off to an inauspicious start Saturday night. On Auburn's second series, the Tigers converted a third-and-long situation with a rare pass and, on the next snap, from their 45, the Tigers gave it to sophomore Michael Dyer — maybe the most disliked native Arkansan on the field.

And, what was a simple running play to the short side of the field turned into a 55-yard sprint down the right sideline for the Little Rock Christian product, who was greeted in the south end zone by a loud chorus of boos. Surely those fans weren't giving the Bronx cheer to the continued poor tackling of the Arkansas defense, were they?

Auburn would drive 47 yards after a Razorback fumble to another touchdown on the ground, this time by yet another Arkansas product, freshman quarterback Kiehl Frazier, who did his best Cam Newton impression in diving in from 7 yards away.

Little did anyone realize as the first quarter was ending, with Auburn already having cranked out 141 rushing yards on 16 attempts, that the Tigers' scoring was done for the night and that it would take three quarters for the visitors to gain another 150 yards on the ground.

Passing? Are you kidding? Between receiver drops and poorly aimed throws, Auburn managed just 102 yards on 9 completions in 25 attempts. It took a trick flea-flicker to get any significant yardage for Auburn, and even that was a floating duck by Barrett Trotter that gave Hogs linebacker Jerico Nelson time to recover and hold the play to a 44-yard gain.

Meanwhile, the up-and-down Arkansas offense generated enough against the Tigers to make the contest an eventual rout, 38-14, before 74,191 fans at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Arkansas, which executed perfectly on back-to-back touchdown drives in the second quarter, then saw receiver Joe Adams race 92 yards untouched from tailback early in the third quarter, only had to drive 16 yards for its last touchdown, thanks to the third Razorback interception of the game. Senior safety Tramain Thomas had that one, along with another earlier in the fourth quarter to set up a Zach Hocker field goal. Sophomore safety Eric Bennett had a third-quarter interception that halted an Auburn drive that was sparked by Frazier's running ability at quarterback.

Arkansas' defensive front, welcoming back senior end Jake Bequette after nearly a four-game absence because of a hamstring injury, played faster and stronger in setting up the linebackers, Jerry Franklin and Alonzo Highsmith, to have big nights. Franklin had 15 total tackles, including eight in the third quarter, when he began to physically dominate Dyer. Highsmith had 12 tackles. Nelson, an outside linebacker, bounced back from a rough outing last week against Texas A&M to record 10 tackles.

Highsmith had two tackles for 8 yards in losses. Franklin had 1.5 tackles for loss. Nelson shared on one as well. Tackle Byran Jones had a stop for loss and freshman end Lonnie Gosha added the Hogs' only sack.

Dyer, who had 78 rushing yards on 7 carries by halftime, managed just 34 in the second half on 14 attempts.

He had boasted earlier in the week that he would be "disappointed" if he didn't rush for 200 yards against the Razorbacks.

"Besides those comments, Coach [Bobby Petrino] said earlier that we weren’t a very good tackling team so far," Highsmith, a junior college transfer, said. "We took that to heart and we wanted to show we are a good tackling team."

Coaches had counted 37 missed tackles by the Hogs in the previous two weeks, a 38-14 loss at Alabama and last week's rally from 18 down to win 42-38 over Texas A&M. Missed tackles were rare Saturday night against a team that was counting on them.

"We tackled better, we got them behind the [yardage] sticks. We had real good success on first-down defense," Petrino said of shutting down the Tigers over the last three quarters.

Defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said his players figured out what Auburn was trying to do, from the blend of Dyer power and the speed sweeps by Onterio McCalebb and Tre Mason, after the first quarter. The Tigers added more quarterback keepers by the freshman Frazier in the third quarter with some success, but Franklin, Highsmith and crew began sniffing those out.

"Once we got them to have some negative plays and got them in third down, then we created the turnovers," said Petrino, whose team has had five takeaways against just one giveaway — Wilson's first-quarter fumble near midfield Saturday night — the past two weeks.

Robinson was happy to have Bequette back on the field.

"He’s a staple to our defense and he really did a great job out there tonight," the coordinator said. "I mean, when we got them in those third-and-long situations the one kid you could count on crossing the other side of the line of scrimmage was Bequette, and that’s a guy that really dominated."

Bequette and Auburn left tackle Brandon Mosley had a battle most of the night that appeared to turn very physical late in the first half, when Mosley horse-collared Bequette and drew a holding call. Mosley was Auburn's one returning letterman from last year's dominant front that helped Cam Newton win the Heisman Trophy and lead the Tigers to the national championship, and against a less-experienced defensive end — which the Hogs have had to use for the past two games since Bequette and Tank Wright (broken arm) were sidelined — it might have been a different story up front.

"We were getting after it," Bequette said of the trench warfare with Mosley. "I was letting him know they weren’t throwing the ball very much and I was just kind of daring them to throw it. He’s a good player, he’s a senior, we’ve gone against each other for the last three years."

Bequette, happy to be back on the field for the game's entirety, was disappointed only that he didn't record any sacks.

"But I feel like I got some pressure and that’s key for defensive end play," he said. "It’s not all about sacks, it’s about getting consistent pressure, and I feel like I and rest of the D-line did that."

The pressure kept Auburn from having any success throwing.

"To stop Auburn you’ve got to put them in second and long, third and long and make them throw," Bequette said. "No disrespect, they’re not a throwing team, we knew their quarterback would throw the ball to the wrong team if you let him. We were able to get some pressure, force some bad throws, and Tramain and Eric, those guys are just ball hawks back there."

Thomas, a senior counted on for his leadership like Bequette and Franklin, seemed a non-factor in the Hogs' loss to Alabama. Saturday night, though, he was back looking like the player who earned preseason All-Southeastern Conference honors at safety.

Thomas said he and the defense took personally some of the comments from Dyer and Auburn in midweek.

"A lot of our guys came in with a chip on their shoulder," the senior from Houston said. "We felt a little disrespected so we came out and tried to hit them hard tonight."

The senior Franklin began supplying the hard hits, and Petrino would note later that Franklin seemed to know what play was coming before the snap. The senior Bequette, while he didn't get a sack, brought pressure that led to Gosha's sack and forced second-half mistakes from the Auburn quarterback. The senior Thomas was able to play center field and make two key interceptions to stop any hope Auburn had of rallying in the fourth quarter. But Thomas also made a key run stop on an Auburn speed sweep too, Robinson said, as the Hogs had the Tigers figured out by that point.

"It was a great feeling, having all three of us [seniors] back and also just bringing the leadership to the defense and making plays out there when the plays needed to be made," Thomas said. "Our defense did a great job, our offense did great job. It was just a good team win out there tonight."

Award-winning columnist Jim Harris wasn’t around when Hugo Bezdek named the Razorbacks, it only seems that way. His acumen for UA football history is renowned and he has covered the Hogs and the state sports scene since 1976. He knows his way around music and food, too. Email: jharris@abpg.com, and follow Jim on Twitter @jimharris360

Tagged: SEC Coaches' Preseason All-SEC Team, Jerico Nelson, Lonnie Gosha, Eric Bennett, Gus Malzahn, Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Southeastern Conference, Auburn Tigers, Alonzo Highsmith, Jake Bequette, Tramain Thomas, Jerry Franklin, Kiehl Frazier, Michael Dyer, Willy Robinson, Bobby Petrino