There was a time when some of us thought that the Razorbacks were not physically in game condition to play for four quarters. That may or may not hold true, but what is becoming abundantly clear, is that we have a poor group of very well paid coaches when it comes to making halftime adjustments. Get out coached at halftime and you will likely lose the second half of the game.
Inasmuch as the Razorbacks seemed incapable of playing for more than half a game during much of the season, Bielema and staff should refund half their [very generous] pay. :?
Our coach looks so lost when we need leadership, when the ship is sinking and we need help/adjustments/something quickly. He just seems like he has nothing to bring to the table when we are in trouble.
BUT SEEMS to have us prepared at the start of a game.
So I agree his halftime speech or lack of must be pathetic at best. Like they all drop acid at halftime.
Agree, man. Football is obviously a four quarter game. In my opinion, a big part of the last two quarters has a lot to do with making adjustments at halftime.
As our old friend [rlw] was fond of saying, Bielema’s halftime “adjustments” seem to mostly consist of deciding what to serve as a refreshment to go with the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. From the looks of our consistently substandard second half play, our old buddy may have called it right.
It always seems to me that we make mental mistakes in they second half. Things we don’t tend to do in the first half. Next thing you know, the snowball is rolling down hill.
To me it seems like the team starts playing “not to lose” and gets tight and everything gets thrown off. They did not seem relaxed and act like they had a 24 point lead. They acted like a team that was scared they’d lose - and then played like that. When you expect bad things to happen - they start happening in sports.
They don’t seem to be able to make in-game adjustments. For example, when Virginia Tech was mimicking our snap count, why didn’t they switch to a silent count. Might have stopped the many offsides penalties. I still don’t understand why we didn’t kick field goals against Missouri. We missed one 48 yard field goal and all of a sudden the coach loses confidence in our kicker. All we had to do was make 2 field goals to win the game.
All on the Coaches?
Yea I guess the coaches need to suit up so we don’t have 2 fumbles that cost us an even bigger lead. So they don’t throw 2 int’s, one being the QB’s fault, the other one being the receiver’s fault. It started with the players on the field.
We went conservative or predictable when it was apparent the players were losing it mentally on offense, from trying to do too much to just plain panick mode. I’ll agree to an extent we needed a calming force from the ranks to settle the boys, an area where CBB needs to provide, but some leadership needs to come from the product actually on the field.
The defense, now that’s an area that has broke down all year at some point in the 2nd half and we didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t change things up other than go in prevent mode and let QB’s tear us up on the ground and in the air. Agree there are major coaching concerns on that side of the ball.
A lot on the coaches yes, a lot more on the players at this point in a season. IMO.
Most games we seem well prepared and ready to go in the 1st half. The 2nd half is played as if the opponent will not make adjustments to our game plan. I was very disappointed in our offensive line play this year.
Hey dwp, the Offensive Line was as porous as a sieve in the 2nd half of our last two games. It seems to have been a mistake in spring practice and in August training camp to take so long to name a starting five on the offensive line. Our QB was just running for his life in the 2nd half of too many Hog games this year.
Our OL depth was probably thin this year, but the starters didn’t seem to know how to work as a unit to protect our QB. So, Coach Bielema has to decide quickly if the major fault was in lack of OL depth or lack of good OL coaching.
You are correct, it’s not all on the coaches. I would put it all on CBB because it’s his system that allows 2nd half meltdowns (topic.) At Wisconsin and Arkansas, CBB has MANAGED to lose a total of 25 games when leading or tied at halftime. Ten games at Wisconsin and 15 at Arkansas. Twenty-five games, unbelievable! Watch the last 3 minutes of the Vtech game before halftime again when he called that TO. On top of that, our greatest coach in Fayetteville history walks away from players and coaches during the bowl game and pouts. Our University, Players, and Fans deserve better. One to two years and this Fraud is gone.
Yeahp! Maybe we will get lucky and he will leave now for another job while he can. Doubt it, but it would be nice. At this point he is just dragging his time out. He isn’t the long term answer and it’s pretty obvious.
Hognificant and Southern hog, I agree with both your posts. The announcers of the Belk Bowl made the comment about CBB just getting away from players and other coaches during the VT comeback. I would have been in everybody’s face. I don’t think Saban ever acted like that.
I live in GA so I don’t get all the info you guys get, but I can’t imagine anyone being a supporter of CBB right now.