<LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2016 … -progress/”>http://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2016/oct/11/underachieving-arkansas-defense-work-progress/</LINK_TEXT>
Thought Jared Collins and Paul Rhoads were particularly interesting.
Jimmy, if you pull sacks out of run defense - as the NCAA should, as the NFL does - Arkansas ranks last in FBS for yards allowed per carry and one from last for rushes per TD allowed.
Arkansas’s at 6.7 yards allowed per rush. If opponents ran 30 times per game for just 4 yards per carry the rest of the season, it would still end up being one of the very worst run-D seasons in school history. As it is, they’re on track to absolutely obliterate the bottom end of the historical range of Arkansas run defenses - for average yards and scores.
Last season showed problems with a school record for most run TDs given up. Everybody assumed that experience and more depth would make that problem go away. If anything, it got worse.
Arkansas is outlier-bad at run defense and pass protection at the same time. Feels like they bungled a lot of things.
Mind-boggling regarding our run defense being the worst in school history, after hearing and reading how deep and talented our D-line is supposed to be. All the articles, posts, conversations about how the D would match 2014. Talk about a bunch of hype…
One poster mentioned several times last week, how he expected our D-line to “wear down the Bama o-line”, because Capps and Agim would be playing more. I laughed out loud at that.
Some perspective is needed here. The defense did play well against the run in the spring and the preseason. What time has proven is that it was against an offensive line that is nowhere near the level we have come to expect. That’s the unfortunate aspect of the offseason - you don’t know how good or bad the team is because all of you have to base it on is its play against each other. Once they play someone else, you sometimes have to readjust your evaluation.
That said, what I have seen from opposing offenses this year is a lot of runs outside the hashmarks. They are challenging Arkansas’ linebackers and defensive backs more than the defensive line in the run game. Even Alabama had a different game plan with the end-arounds, toss sweeps, etc. It was a much different look than when many of the same defensive linemen shut down Derrick Henry last year.
Arkansas had a really good run defense a year ago with most of the same players. What has changed is how offenses are attacking it, and the Razorbacks have not been able to adjust. It should also be noted that the three teams that have really gashed the run defense have three of the best offenses in the country. Arkansas is not the only team that has struggled to stop them. Teams like Ole Miss, Tennessee, Oklahoma and USC are in the same boat.
I feel like I’m beating a dead horse here, but I am weary of hearing:
our eyes were in the wrong place
some people took the wrong gap
people were not aligned properly
we saw the mistakes, and they are easily correctable
he took a bad angle
I guess they can’t say that so and so is just too slow or hasn’t been able to learn the defense in 3 years or is afraid to tackle but we don’t have anybody better.
A lot of this might be corrected if the coaches concentrated on “football smarts” when assessing whether or not a player is SEC calibur. One can run like the wind, be quick as a hicup, and be as tough as whet-leather and look really good on a high school football field. But being dumber than stump does a lot to negate each in a league like the SEC.
[quote=“MattJones”]
[/quote]I don’t see it this way. The Hogs played TAMU and Bama better the last two seasons. Now, returning 9 starters, the defense is collapsing and playing in chaos.
That’s not a result of playing against a poor Oline in the Spring, it’s because the coaching has broken down.
All those other teams cited have won at least one conference game; the Hogs are clearly pointing south.
It’s also worth noting that all those “good” players from two years ago were onboarded by the Scooter Guy.
[quote=“daBoar”]
I think Alabama and Texas A&M have better offenses than they had last year. I disagree about Arkansas “pointing south.” As I’ve said numerous times, I think the Razorbacks play potentially the three best teams in the league the first three conference games. Everything is winnable the rest of the season, including Saturday vs. Ole Miss. I don’t see one team that you can say will easily beat Arkansas.
Ole Miss and Tennessee have won SEC games - against Georgia. I think Arkansas would beat Georgia. The difference is Arkansas has had to play two top five teams in conference instead.
I am inclined to agree with Matt Jones. We have played two of the most talented, strongest and fastest teams in SEC. From here on we’ll see teams of equal caliber. Comparisons of how one team played against another also is not a valid indication of how we play against the same opponent. We’ll know how good or how bad we are starting next game.
[quote=“MattJones”]
And yet we’ll be the underdogs against OM, AU and the Gators. The game Saturday will define this team. We lose to Ole Miss, then we drop the Auburn game against Auburns “D”.
According to Jimmy’s article, “Without Santos Ramirez able to go, De’Andre Coley was the only option at strong safety and Liddell the only one at free safety.”
Four years into the current leadership, how can we only have two safeties?
It’s time to coach someone up.
This…and two linebackers. Very concerning.
It is crazy to say we are headed south. Not saying the hogs are definitely on the upswing either…, the season is half over (probably the harder half too)… we are 4-2 and have issues on the OL and defense… let’s hold off on the panic button and enjoy watching the rest of the year play out. CBBs teams have shown an ability to improve as the season progresses, so let’s hope that trend continues.
I agree also with MJ, we fell to the two best teams in the Sec, not to say we won’t have are hands more than full for the rest of this season, but we match upper better with the talent level of our remaining opponents. We have been a team that is better the last half of season than the first half, this season we won the games we were expected to although not in a dominant fashion as many desired. Myself I was just happy to get the victory and move forward with the opportunity to win more games this year under CBB. Very few expected us to defeat TCU or for AA to be the QB he has proven to be, many tend to focus on areas that are underperforming. Our lines on both side of the ball are going to have to improve on thier performance for us to have any chance of winning out, we have proven that we can score and any improvement by the lines will allow us to either score more or not have the need to score as much either way it improves our chances of winning. The disappointing thing is that we are weak where we thought we would be better. WPS
Tonight, we saw an improving offense, a vast improvement in our place kicking phase of the game, and Frojoldt’s best night as an O-Lineman. We also saw our defense give up its 10th rushing TD (seems like 10, is it?) to an opponent’s QB. The linebacking corps looked thinner, our secondary still can’t tackle in open space, and we gave up a 90-yard drive in 5 plays and 53 seconds. Some of this is scheme, but most of it is lack of talent and speed on that side of the ball. Now, we’re down ANOTHER safety for the first half of Auburn thanks to Coley being tossed. If Malzahn had an offense, we’d be cooked on the plains next week. Fortunately, Gus still runs his HS oriented jet sweep offense with a stationary QB (the first, non-dual threat to run QB we’ve seen this year). Get by Auburn, and you can see the Sugar Bowl from Fayetteville.
Malzahn will have SOME success against us because he will use hyper quick snaps to catch us out of alignment. I hate how the HUNH crap has ruined football.