Arkansas Grades

As the Commissioner and his bride continue their swing through a whole bunch of European countries that we’d have trouble finding on a map for their well-deserved vacation, it falls to us to document Saturday evening’s homecoming roasting of an overmatched bunch of Hogs in Tuscaloosa.

Let us tell the truth right up front -- Arkansas is not a good football team.  They have lost their last two games by a combined score of 99-17, and neither game was really as close as the scores would indicate.  Ever since Coach Petrino’s motorcycle crash with benefits, the Razorbacks have just not been able to recapture the form that their once-proud program could boast.  Alabama last lost to Arkansas in the 2006 season.  We’ll give you a minute to think about what you were doing 13 years ago, but the quarterback who took the majority of the second-half snaps for Alabama on Saturday was busy facing his first set of kindergarten mid-terms.

Frankly, most of the drama in this game was about how backup quarterback Mac Jones would perform in his first start for the Crimson Tide.  The answer was “admirably”.  By the end of the first quarter the issue was no longer in doubt.  By the end of third, everyone except the always laser-focused Nick Saban’s thoughts had turned to end-of-evening homecoming celebrations.   Shoot, we didn’t even get upset enough to scare the dogs to their usual hiding place under the coffee table.

We will not impose the usual letter grade deduction for quality of competition -- that would disrespectful to a division opponent, even one that sits at 2-6 on the season.  Here is how we grade the game.

Offense:  A-  The offense manage 459 total yards and possessed the football for nearly 35 minutes of the game.  They earned 23 first downs and converted 8 of 13 third down opportunities.  The quarterbacks managed to complete 24-30 passes with no interceptions.  Najee Harris left the game early but had 86 yards on 13 carries and Brian Robinson, Jr. had 67 yards, also on 13 carries and also left before the contest ended, though not for injury.  Jerry Jeudy led all receivers with 7 catches for 103 yards and two touchdowns.  Henry Ruggs III also had a TD catch. Jones played quite well and his long TD pass to Jeudy was beautiful.  The down grade is for critical penalties, some high shotgun snaps, and loss of focus on downfield blocking a few times. The offense did not turn the football over. But for a conference game with the second-string quarterback starting, this performance earned an excellent grade.  Frankly, if Alabama had wanted to score in the 60s, it would not have been a challenge.

Defense:  A  The defense appears to be rounding into shape.  Alabama held Arkansas to  only 213 total yards, divided almost equally between rushing and passing. Individually Shane Lee led all tacklers with 6, five solo, including a sack and two tackles for a loss.  There were three interceptions, including a beautiful Trevon Diggs 84-yard pick six before the half plus a fumble recovery.  Holding any conference opponent to 7 points earns an A, and their touchdown drive was aided by a mental mistake on special teams.  The Hogs did move the ball at times, but the middle of defense, manned by so many freshman, appears to be firming up.   Arkansas was 3 of 12 on third down and the Stop Troops scored as many tds on the night as the Piggie offense.  We did not recognize it till we saw the drive chart today, but it appears that Arkansas had only three drives in the second half, two of which totaled six plays.  That will lose you a lot of football games.

Special Teams:  A-

Punting:  We like the new punter.  Even his “poor” line drive punt on Saturday got a nice bounce and roll and was unreturnable.  Two punts with a 47 yards average is more than serviceable.  In an odd statistic, neither team had any put return yards, though if we were faced with kicking to Jaylen Waddle, we’d do everything we could to make him fair catch it our kick it out of bounds.  The lining up in the neutral zone penalty on the Arkansas punt nearly cost us our head coach to exploding head syndrome.  The neutral zone is only 11 inches wide, let’s stay out of it please, gentlemen.

Kickoffs:  Both teams had stupid fielding plays, catching kickoffs that were headed out of bounds and then stepping out deep in their own territory.  That cannot happen in a competitive game.  We expect the point will be made.

Placekicking:  Bulovas was 2/2 on field goals with a long of 31 yards and 6/6 on PATs.  That all deserves high marks especially on a field that had absorbed about three inches of rain in the past 24 hours.  We did not watch any of them.

Coaching:  A-  The coaches did an outstanding job this week.  It is hard to keep college players focused through the long grind of a college season, especially for a game against an overmatched opponent like Arkansas, sandwiched between the annual tussle against a bitter rival and an off week -- not to mention with perhaps the toughest game on the schedule looming after that.

The offensive coaches called a good game for Jones and put him in a position to win.  Issues related to the offensive and defensive lines appear to be shoring up.  Lighting up players for boneheaded special teams mistakes in the second half send a message that is sure to be received. 

The downgrade comes with quibbles that we have (for the second week in a row) with regard to goal line play-calls.  That recurring issue must be fixed.

Officiating:  D.  This was Mark Curles’s crew -- we dare you to not think of Moe, Larry, and Curley.  The incomplete signal on the touchdown in the back of the end zone was so puzzling that not even the booth apologists for the officials could explain it.  Despite being a not-very-good team, Arkansas is a fine bunch of gentlemen and technicians.  In fact, the zebras did not observe them to commit a single rules infraction all night, despite facing the #1 team in the country.  SEC officiating is so bad that this week the Conference Commissioner, addressing exactly nothing, felt compelled to issue a statement about just how terrific SEC officiating really is.  The dreaded vote of confidence.  What is likely to change?  Nothing.

They bye week falls at a good time.  Lots of players were nicked up Saturday, Neal, Harris, Smith, etc. left with various bumps and bruises.  We hear a rumor that the elder Tagovailoa has an ankle issue.  It’ll be good to have everyone rested and healthy for LSU.

It is not out of bounds with a bye week coming up to take a gander around the rest of college football, which is head-scratchingly odd this season.  Ohio State has a very solid team on both sides of the ball and with Wisconsin having lost two in a row, seems the class of their conference and playoff bound.  Clemson is undefeated, though with a conference schedule softer than the bucket seats in one of those fancy Italian cars that JD hates to work on because they use a different sized bolt for every fitting.  Seriously, how many SEC teams would go undefeated against Clemson’s conference schedule?  We are guessing at least five.  The Pac-12 is so impossible to predict we cannot imagine who is betting on them.  Oklahoma managed to lose a game on Saturday to an unranked opponent despite gaining over 500 yards of offense.  With the door open to climb back into the conference championship fight, Texas then managed to lose to TCU.  No word on whether they first said, “hey Sooners, hold our beer and watch this.”  Notre Dame, the traditional standard-bearer of the independents, now has two losses and appears to be out of contention.

We plan to take next weekend off from game-day stress and enjoy some football games not including Alabama.  We urge you to do the same.  The following week Coach Language Mangler and his Bayou Bengals come to town for the battle that likely determines the SEC West Champion.  It promises to be a tad more hotly contested than last week’s game.  We are so looking forward to it.

Roll Tide.  Beat the Tigers.

 


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Tennessee Grades

           The Commissioner is out of the country.  (You have to wonder why he’d take a trip like that on the third Saturday of October, but he did.)  His Son and Heir, who usually does the grades in his absence, was in T-Town for the game and wasn’t able to get home in time to prepare the grades before his day job called him.  Our Correspondent from the Tire Store was on the East Coast for a wedding. (There ought to be a rule that you can’t get married during the season). So, we’re down to the Correspondent from the Faculty Lounge.  We’ve gone about as deep in the depth chart as Tennessee went to find a QB. But here at the Commissioner’s Blog, we all play to a standard, even the 3’s and 4’s.

            Sometimes a win doesn’t really feel like a win.  Sometimes a win is ugly.  Sometimes a win is costly. That’s kinda how we feel about last night’s game.  Sure, the new lights were awesome and the haze from the cigar smoke in the stadium added to the surreal atmosphere.  We beat the Vols now 13 times in a row.  We got a 100-yard scoop and score.  We enjoyed the booming punts by freshman walk-on Ty Perine. (Though we’d prefer drives ended with a score instead of punts). We marveled at Jason Waddle’s return game. And we saw Najee Harris chalk up his second straight 100-yard rushing game. We even saw a Bama wide receiver throw a touchdown pass.

            Things started out pretty well.  A quick TN three and out, a short punt, and a 13-yard return by Waddle gave us the ball at the TN 35.  Four plays later Harris ran it in, and folks were already pulling the cellophane off their cigars.  An interception by Jared Mayden on the third play of TN’s ensuing possession set us up first and ten at the TN 38.  The blow-out was well underway and folks in the stands were clipping the ends of their cigars and testing their lighters.  Two receptions by Harris and one each by Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs, III, set us at the 2-yard line first and goal.   Then things sorta went sideways.

On first and goal from the 2, Tua was flushed from the pocket (why we didn’t just pound it in is still under investigation. Some have suggested that OC Steve Sarkisian mistakenly picked up Lane Kiffen’s old playbook, but that’s just a rumor). He rolled to his left and just before stepping out of bounds he threw a bullet . . . to Nigel Warrior, who was wearing an orange hat.  Tua’s second INT of the season.  Warrior returned the ball 59 yards to the Bama 41.  Six plays later, the Vols knotted the score at 7 all, aided along the way by a Bama defensive holding penalty. 

Bama started its next possession at the 35-yard line.  Four Harris runs, and a pass to Ruggs set us up for Robinson’s 9-yard TD run.  OK, we got this.  That interception and TN score was a fluke.  A 14-point swing fluke, but a fluke, nonetheless. 

TN drives 55 yards in 11 plays, aided by the first of four pass interference penalties, and kicks a field goal to make it a 14-10 game with 11:54 to play in the 2d quarter.  On Bama’s next possession, Tua came out slinging it.  Obviously, the INT didn’t hurt his confidence.  Miller Forristall, Ruggs, Robinson, and Jeudy caught 77 yards worth of passes to set up Harris’ one-yard TD run.  21-10.  TN’s next possession ends after 5 plays netted only 27 yards, aided by the second Bama pass interference penalty.  A fair catch of the punt gave Bama the ball at their own 21.  We got this.  Wonder if it’s OK to smoke a cigar at the end of the first half and at the end of the game?

Then, the football gods turned their backs on us.  Tua was sacked for a 5-yard loss on the first play.  He completed a pass to Robinson to get back to the original line of scrimmage and then left the field for the medical tent.  He then left the medical tent for the locker room.  Then he left the stadium for a trip to the hospital.  Reports are he underwent a surgical procedure for a high ankle sprain and will be out for 2 weeks.  He told his teammates that he’ll be back for LSU on Nov. 9.  Here’s hoping he’s right about that.

Mac Jones took over and hit Waddle for 13 yards and a first down.  A 3-yard run by Harris, an incomplete pass to Major Tennison, and a sack left us with 4^th and 17 at our own 27.  Will Reichard, who had been out with a pulled hip flexor for several weeks came on to punt.  He limped off after kicking a 33 yarder, ne’r to return.   

TN went three and out only gaining five yards and punted out of bounds at the Bama 17.  Eight plays and 60 yards later, Harris running for half of those on three carries and Jones throwing to Harris and Forristall for the rest, Joe Bulovas came on to try a 41-yard field goal.  TN Head Coach and former Saban assistant, Jeremy Pruitt, then began playing head games.  He called three timeouts to ice Bulovas before the long field goal try.  It worked as Bulovas pulled the kick left.  Some might say that Pruitt didn’t have to use all three timeouts to accomplish his goal, but, they don’t give you any extra credit for going into the locker room with timeouts in your pocket.  The half ended with Bama up 21-10.

Bama received the KO to start the 3d quarter and went 3 and out, gaining only 4 yards after starting on their own 9-yard line after being penalized for a personal foul on the KO.  Ty Perine, the walk-on freshman, punted 42 yards to the TN 45 and received the loudest cheers from the crowd since Tua left the game.  TN then went 40 yards in 11 plays and kicked a 32-yard FG to make it 13-21. 

Mac Jones answered by engineering a 76-yard drive in 10 plays, aided by a TN personal foul penalty that extended the drive, ending in WR Slade Bolden, who played QB in high school, throwing a 6-yard TD pass to Forristall.  Bama up 28-13.

Both teams went three and out on their next possessions.  A high point of Bama’s 8-yard drive in 3 plays was Perine’s 51-yard punt.  The low point was that TN returned the kick 22 yards and Perine had to make the tackle at the TN 34.

Thirteen plays and 66 yards later, aided by yet another Bama pass interference penalty, TN lined up at the Bama one-yard line on 4^th and goal.  Jarrett Guarantano, TN’s back-up QB who came in after starter Brian Maurer left the game in the 1^st quarter with a possible concussion, stepped under center, took the ball, and tried to leap over the line.  He didn’t make it.  In an attempt to break the plane of the goal line, the ball was knocked loose and fell at the feet of Trevon Diggs.  Diggs scooped it up, scooted 100 yards down the right sideline, and scored.  The PAT was good, and Bama took the lead 35-13.  Another 14-point swing, but this time the other direction.  The cheers in the stadium were the loudest since Perine’s last punt.

TN went three and out on their possession after the KO.  Waddle returned the punt 22 yards and Bama took over on the TN 38 with 5:00 minutes to play.  Five runs by Brian Robinson, Jr., and three by Keilan Robinson moved the ball 31 yards and bled all but 30 seconds off the clock.  On 4^th and 1 at the TN 7, Keilan Robinson was stopped for no gain and TN took over.  The Vols took a knee and the game ended with a final score of 35-13. 

The stadium lights went crazy, the cigar smoke was thick, another SEC win was in the books, and the third Saturday in October still belonged to the Tide. But it still felt off.  We didn’t cover the spread (34.5points). We lost Tua and the specter of last year’s November doldrums hovered over Bryant-Denny Stadium.  Reichard, our answer to the pitiful kicking game of the last couple of years, is still not healthy, though Perine was a high point on the punts.  Our defense gave up 231 yards to a TN offense that was playing with second and third string QB’s most of the game. On top of that, our DB’s were called for four pass interference penalties against a crew of fair to middlin’ receivers who were thrown balls by a second string QB.  With that in mind, here’s how I grade the game:

Offense: B-

We put 35 points on the board with 373 yards of total offense (233 passing; 140 rushing).  Najee Harris accounted for 105 of those rushing yards on 21 plays for a 5.7 average.  Brian Robinson, Jr., gained 40 on 7 tries, averaging 5 yards.  Keilan Robison ran the ball 3 times for 6 yards.  Tua was 11/12 passing for 155 yards and one INT.  Jones was 6/11 for 72 yards.  WR Slade Bolden was 1/1 for 6 yards and a TD to Forristall.     Six different receivers caught balls thrown by the three QBs.  Ruggs led the bunch with 4 catches for 72 yards.  Harris also caught 4 passes and added 48 receiving yards to his 105 rushing.  Jeudy pulled in 3 passes for 41 yards.  Forristall caught 3 balls for 28 yards and a TD.  Devonte Smith, who sat out the first half due to a targeting suspension from last week, caught one pass for 18 yards.  Brian Robinson caught 2 passes for 18 yards.  We converted 6/10 third downs. To state the obvious, our offense is not as productive without Tua.  Mac Jones will get plenty of practice this week and game experience next week.  He will need it in light of the November schedule and Tua’s health.

Defense: B-

We gave up 231 yards of total offense to the Vols who were operating with second and third string QBs for over 3 quarters.  Of that, 114 were rushing yards and 117 passing.  We did have one interception and Diggs’ 100-yard scoop and score.  But we folded like a cheap suit on TN’s 41-yard drive after the interception. Four pass interference penalties at crucial times extended TN drives. But more importantly, the need to foul the TN receivers in order to cover them raises some concern when we face the likes of Joe Burrows and the LSU receivers.

Punting: A-

Perine’s punting was a high spot in the game.  The down grade comes from giving up a 22-yard return after a 51-yard kick.  Reichard’s 33 yarder was a result of his injury, even though he was kicking pretty well in warm up.

Kicking: C

We’re back to where we were.  Bulovas made all the PATs, but just can’t nail the FGs when they’re needed.  It doesn’t matter whether Pruitt called one or three TOs before the 41-yard attempt.  Bulovas has plenty of leg, he’s just a bit off on direction.  We either have to get him sorted or the offense has to put up enough points so that FGs don’t matter.

Coaching: C

Eight penalties for 93 yards is way too much, especially against teams we face down the road.  I’m sure when the Tire Store opens after the wedding, the boys in the grease pit will have something to say about the penalty situation and the quality, or lack thereof, of the officiating.  Whatever the defensive back coaches are doing to teach how to cover receivers without fouling them needs to be reevaluated.  Plus, with a new QB under center the chances for miscommunications and timing errors are multiplied.  I understand that we’re talking about games called by SEC officials, but that’s what we’re facing down the road.  That’s why the coaches get the big bucks.

A win is a win.  An SEC win is an important win. A win against the Vols is really a big win, regardless of their record coming in.  So, we’re happy, proud, and grateful for notching #13 in a row.  But, it was not a very impressive performance.  We showed some character and determination over the course of four quarters and had some big plays but letting the Vols hang around until the 4^th quarter does not reflect good execution, focus, or intensity. 

We face the Hogs next week. Arkansas hasn’t won an SEC contest since. . . oh, well, I can’t remember when.  But they’re still an SEC opponent and we can’t lose focus.  Next week is the most important game of the season.  Tua will be watching from the sidelines. Slinging it for over 400 yards ain’t gonna happen. As Jermaine says, “Run da bawl!”

Roll Tide, y’all.  Let’s cook up some pig!

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