I posted here last week that I had a couple of fears going into the game. One was specific; the other more of a general concern.
I worried that, after two years of outplaying A&M (only to fritter the game away at the end), if this year’s version of the game might be one in which the Aggies forged ahead. Could we/would we be able to rally - as the Aggies have the last two years - if that’s how this one played out? Turns out, that is the game we got; and the answer was that on this day, at least, we could not come back late. Perhaps we’d have been able to had we not totally collapsed defensively in the fourth quarter. But the bottom line is that we weren’t able to turn things around.
The other key - and this (unfortunately) was right on the money - was that we’d live or die with our ability to contain the QB run. Obviously, this was a game with a lot of different aspects to it - turnovers, missed scoring opportunities, failure to convert short yardage plays, penalties, etc. However, I still believe that if we had not allowed Knight to pop those first two long TD runs, we’d probably have won the game.
At that point, we were controlling the game. A&M had shown that they could move the ball some, but had not been able to maintain a drive consistently enough to get any points. We had the lead in statistics, time of possession and we’d have been up 2 TD’s (or so) at half time. That would not guarantee a win; but it would have put us in a good place - we’re a team that needs to play with confidence, and we’d shown plenty. Clearly, we had other opportunities to add to our lead, with or without the QB runs, and we were not able to capitalize on them. But the QB runs kept them in it. In a game that felt like Arkansas should have been up 14 points on them, it was even going into the second half. We probably could have weathered the storm if we’d have had a little bit of that house money we should have been playing with.
The two major disappointments I have coming out of the game is the failure of our offense (and I put this primarily on the OL) to convert short yardage situations; particularly, near the goal line. This was an area where we excelled the last two years (once we got it going), and it is an imperative for the type of physical game that is Bielema’s brand. Failure after having a first and goal at the 2 almost lost the TCU game for us, and it contributed greatly to our loss to the Aggies.
The second thing that really bothered me was that, to my admittedly untrained eye, it appeared that a few of our defenders were just going through the motions as if it were practice, after they hit us in the mouth with that long scoring pass. I didn’t pay close enough attention (I was pretty disgusted and so didn’t feel like rewinding and watching in slow-mo) to call individuals out here, and probably wouldn’t even if I had made a list of them. But, pretty clearly, the defensive intensity and effort just wasn’t there in the fourth quarter. That was pretty obvious, and it’s a major disappointment to me.
I was relieved to see that CBB addressed it in his Sunday comments to the press. I will add that it is a teaching opportunity for our players, who aren’t used to starting out fast and being a ranked team. Part of being in that position is understanding how to handle adversity and setbacks. It’s different when you’re the ranked team than it is when you’re the underdog chasing a group of ranked teams. I’m confident Bielema and his staff will use the moment to help their team handle it better then next time they find themselves in a similar position.
On to next week and re-building our confidence for Bama.