I thought after sleeping over it and a cup of coffee in the morning, I get a handle on what happened to us last night. In spite of a relentless rush on the QB, putting him on his back on almost every pass, he managed to complete incredible passes and move us down the field. Then the fumble at the goal line reminiscent of Walker’s fumble at the goal line vs AL, am I having a nightmare? No, you are awake. Then again and again falling short at the goal line, It’s not happening, yes it is. Then we get a stop, breaking the pass, yes we get the ball back. No, Cooley just hit late after the play is over and they keep the ball. Reminiscent of the “trip” by Skipper couple years ago that revived A&M. I truly think A&M has better talent and speed than AR on both sides of the ball. But we could have beat them if we had avoided all those negatives. Better or not, A&M nightmare continues, awake or sleep.
I thought before the game we were going to probably have to play a near perfect game to beat them. A friend was over and he asked me what I thought before we started. I told him in in games like this it usually comes down to some pretty simple things. Turnovers, line play, not getting beat over the top on D, and who gets to the other teams QB the most. These are all pretty simple parts of playing this game and we didn’t take care of any of these.
I am very frustrated that 4 games into the season we don’t have our offensive line figured out.
We made inexplicable snafu’s in the first 3 quarters, but these incredible 4th quarter defensive lapses have got to stop. This goes back to last year. I made this comment before in another thread. I’m just saying it again. I know it’s not going to help anything. Frustration! You know how it is.
In addition to all the self defeating mistakes and penalties, at the goal line we called the obvious plays that they were ready and determined to stop. we did not show ingenuity of plays unexpected. Let’s see if they recognize that. When you make the same mistake more than once, that means someone is not paying attention. Their QB got loose 3 times down the middle and 2 TD’s. That should have been corrected after the first one.
Yes pal, I feel your frustrations!
While I agree with all of the above, I submit that even when they know what play you are going to run, if you cannot push the ball over the goal line in four plays from the one, you ain’t gonna win many ball games.
I like this thread and the analysis but Red Stick hog nailed it and makes me even more nervous. We have a lot to fix, but our bread and butter is running the ball. I understand if we cant run against Bama. I am praying that our inability against A&M has more to do with them being a great Def Front.
Nearly all of our mistakes was as the result of their strength at all positions. Each issue was carried over to another. It was a wonder that we made a game of it. And that was for having AA carried us on his back.
We have to get consistency in our Oline and that appears to be happening in regards to personnel. Now we have to get the chemistry among the starters. We have 2 weeks of practice and Alcorn St to improve before Bama Dline and their running QB like A&M’s Knight.
The next 2 weeks are pivotal because we don’t have a soft spot in the schedule after this.
Aggies had some serious mistakes, too. They left it out there for Arkansas to win with a clean game. The Aggies had two serious mistakes in the kicking game at the outset to put Arkansas into the game. Strip on the punt was actually a good play by Arkansas. The usually solid Aggie kicker missed a chip shot. The Aggies also fumbled going in when they were rolling in the third quarter.
Giving away the touchdown to end the first half was a huge blunder. Not getting the ball into the end zone three times (getting a field goal once) was huge, too. That’s giving the Aggies a couple of touchdowns and missing three for yourself. That’s a possible 28-point swing, and I think with the lead, the Aggies are in a bind down the stretch on how to play on defense against Allen.
Exactly, much agreed. Score is not an indicator of how close these teams are. But the biggest surprise of the season for me is the poor play of the Hog defense. Smith got it turned around the 2nd half of the 2014 season, he is gonna have to do that again. Possible exceptions being Alabama and Ole Miss, rest of the schedule is doable and 9 wins still possible, but the defense has to play better. We’ll see 
As difficult as it was, we moved the ball and placed ourselves in position to score. Plus they made enough mistakes to enhance our chances. Once again, we found a way to lose to A&M instead a way to win.
I wrote you a reply but I don’t see it. Maybe I forgot to press the post button. Here it goes again: As you said Aggies made enough mistakes and gave us many opportunities to win the game. We also moved the ball regardless of the difficulties but squandered the opportunity to burry them. By the half they knew they have dodged the bullet once more. Second half they were going to finish it…they did.