Two big takeaways were the way the safeties played and the blitzing in the second half.
Obviously Santos had a pair of great plays to help win the game on Ole Miss’ last two drives, but I thought the safeties were pretty good all game with the exception of Ramirez and Liddell each missing tackles inside the 5 on Ole Miss TDs. Those things happen sometimes. Overall, I thought they got downhill better. Liddell also made a handful of tackles to stop gains for 8-12 yards that were 20-60 against Bama.
Robb sent a lot of LB blitzes in the second half after pretty much laying back in the first. Some of them were delayed, but not all. He used Eugene as a blitzer pretty often in the second half, with a good deal of success. Ellis blitzed on the final fourth down, which helped flush Kelly out of the pocket. Kelly’s numbers when Arkansas blitzed were pretty terrible.
The run game was obviously better, but I kinda figured it might be with how much Ole Miss has struggled against it. Still, definitely a good sign to see. Interested to see if it carries over to Auburn. I thought Brian Wallace played a really nice game. Bret said after that Skipper is playing great right now.
These are the next best thing to the old Broyles Sunday shows with Bud Campbell (and others). I loved they way he would dissect a play and explain what was going on. BP did it, but not quite as eloquently. And I’m glad to see a bit of it now on the CBB show. Just wish there was more of it.
Only thing that would make it better is if the articles were longer with more examples. I’d like to see more concerning the line play too… what went right or wrong and why.
I liked the blitzing in the second half. As bad as the defense looked at times in the first half with turning receivers loose, it probably worked better to crank up those blitzes in the second half when Ole Miss had to try to adjust on the fly.
The OL handled the rush from Ole Miss DL well on all night. Ole Miss had to bring a lot of people to get pressure, and that left WRs in single coverage.
Most weeks, I’ve included lengthy OL segments pinpointing issues just out of necessity because it’s been such a problem area. Last night, they were pretty good and I decided to focus on the blitzing. Going back through the entire game and putting it together takes forever, so the second-half blitzes were the main focal point.
Hjalte was better. It looked like he missed a blitz pickup on the sack on the first drive of the game, but there weren’t as many facepalm mistakes. Maybe his other big :oops: moment was tripping over his own feet while pulling on the Allen pitch to Rawleigh for the TD. Hatcher was in motion for a shovel pass, but Hjalte tripping took that option away. It also allowed the defender to have a clear path to Rawleigh, but Rawleigh made a heck of a cut to get into the end zone.
Brian Wallace continues to really improve. Physically, Jake Raulerson is the weakest of the bunch, which shows up at times.