Comment by Arkbear

September 22, 2007 @ 9:58 pm

The most scary thing about all of this is that we were supposed to have one of the easiest schedules in college football.

Comment by Tab Prewett

September 23, 2007 @ 5:56 am

Good teams win by not making mistakes. The mistakes last night were endless:

1. Poor play calling — 3 straight runs up the middle when we need to hold the ball in fourth quarter. A dive with McFadden on 3rd and 3, again, right into the middle, on the goal line early in second quarter. After the first drive, few passes on first down.

2. Poor game management. The fumble by Smith — makes you cringe when you see it on replay. And how about the timeout on a two-point play that made absolutely no difference in the game? That was beyond dumb.

3. Herring’s defense and its penalties: Out of bounds hit, offsides, offsides, offsides, and of course, roughing the kicker.

3. Dropped passes, poor passes, poor quarterbacking all around. Dick started superbly, then seemed to lose his confidence. And why is he on the field in the Wildhog? Just take him out. He probably runs a 5.2 in the 40.

4. Nutt looked shaken and confused the entire game. The last possession when we should have been in a 2-minute offense trying to come back from 35-29 was like a junior high team trying to play. From 4 minutes to 2:45 it took us to run 3 plays that netted five yards. Do we not have a two-minute offense?

Honestly, Nutt has done with McFadden much like he did with Jones, made Arkansas into a one-man team, so that if he’s not touching the ball we’re screwed. Jones is amazing, but he can’t pound the ball like DMac can. Dick has lost confidence, it’s clear. Nutt has lost his nuts.

We will probably go 8 and 4 and play Independence Bowl and lost to Nebraska.

Nutt will hang on.

Comment by CJLR

September 23, 2007 @ 7:45 am

I agree with Tab. Without one or two of those mistakes, we win the game by 3 touchdowns, easy. But the mistakes are seeming to be the norm rather than the exception these days.

I still don’t understand calling the same play - d-mac off right tackle - three times in a row with 4 minutes left. On 3rd down, Kentucky’s defense had 10 guys in the box just waiting for it.

Comment by Sleestak

September 23, 2007 @ 10:22 am

ASU had more passing yards on the road against Tennessee than UA had at home against Kentucky and they are not some freak pass-happy team.

ASU had more offensive touchdowns against Tennessee on the road than UA had at home against Kentucky….again…ASU is primarily a running team.

Tulsa had more offensive touchdowns against Tennessee than UA.

There is a real problem there I think with offensive philosophy.

Comment by Tab Prewett

September 23, 2007 @ 11:06 am

The more you think about it the more pissed you get. The play calling was abysmal, especially after the first quarter. Look at it. Kentucky had 28 second half points, and only stopped themselves with a fumble after about a 30 yard run down to our 20. The second half could easily have been a 35 to 40 point differential in Kentucky’s favor if we do not get a safety, and the kick return. Offense and defense couldn’t play worse than they did in the second half. It was like playing USC, except this was Kentucky.

We can’t possibly be that much worse talent wise. It has to be the coaching and the philosophies employed. Herring’s blitzkreig and leaving untalented inexperienced dime backs on senior receivers blows up every game. Nutt’s Woody Hayes three yards a cloud of dust stops the finest running back in the country and the entire history of the UofA from generating any momentum, any type of offensive variety or surprise.

With Malzahn — and I was no huge Malzahn fan — we got a lot of crazy interesting wild plays that directly helped us in wins against Bama and Auburn last year. We see where we are now and how well Tulsa is doing.

It’s coaching, plain and simple.

Comment by pubb13

September 23, 2007 @ 1:22 pm

Lets face it guys the days of trick plays and an exciting offense are over. We’ll just have to live with another year of “Nutt Ball”. Run, Run, get penalty, pass on 3rd and 15, punt. Repeat.

Comment by CharlieHog

September 24, 2007 @ 5:53 am

funny, I’ve been thinking all weekend that we threw the ball too much.

Two Arkansas expatriates examine Razorback sports from the outside-in. razorbackexpats at yahoo dot com