One-Half A Good Show, One-Half A Scary Regression
The Houston Nutt plan almost went disastrously wrong at Columbia on Saturday night. One hopes the coaching staff takes note of the facts and adjusts accordingly, away from some unsuccessful tendencies.
Number one fact to notice: Obsession with time of possession is a dangerous mistake.
First half time of possession: South Carolina 16:35, Arkansas 13:25.
First half score: Arkansas 23, South Carolina 6.
Second half time of possession: Arkansas 23:29, South Carolina 6:31.
Second half score: South Carolina 14, Arkansas 3.
Arkansas could have scored at least 11 more points if things had gone right in the second half, but they didn't go right, and they didn't because whoever was calling the plays went way too conservative.
In the second half, the Razorbacks ran the ball 16 times on first down, passed once. Those 16 runs went for a total of 34 yards. Eleven of those 16 runs went for 2 yards or less, for a subtotal of 1 net yard. Eleven runs for a net 1 yard. This was not what was supposed to happen when the Razorbacks added Gus Malzahn and Alex Wood to the coaching staff. Saturday night yawed way too close to the bright orange crayon Houston Nutt offense of the past.
It's understandable that, after throwing a passel of interceptions at Little Rock the week before, Mitch Mustain grabbed some pine after starting the South Carolina game with a pick. That was a bold move, one that begs the question of what would it take for Mustain to get another chance this season. In place of the true freshman, sophomore Casey Dick had great stats but also brought more warning signs of the "same old" offense.
Dick showed some rough spots. He did not show the same elan as Mustain in executing the offense, making his fakes obvious and taking a lot of the guesswork away from the defense. This had a lot to do with why the Gamecocks were able to suffocate the Hogs' rushing game on first downs after halftime. In addition, Dick never completed a downfield pass to anybody not named Monk, very similar to his passing tunnel vision of 2005. He made three dumps to fullbacks, eight completions to Marcus Monk, and that's it for the whole game. Nobody, not even the coach's dearest fans, ever wanted the Arkansas passing game to revert to the grossly simplistic junk that Houston Nutt regressed to during this decade.
If Mustain is unable to execute well in the passing offense, as has been apparent lately, Dick is certainly an adequate replacement even if he is being restricted in decision making. Even when not being allowed by his coach to throw to a secondary receiver, Dick made some spectacular plays under extremely difficult conditions.
If not for Monk's goal-line bobble that prolonged the game, Dick's statistics would have been outstanding, and the finish would not have been close. Dick should have been 12-19 for 237 yards and two touchdowns. It wasn't a particularly well-placed pass (and Dick also appeared inexperienced throwing the sideways tosses to the running backs), being quite a bit too high, but Monk should have caught it for a TD, or let it go past.
The really remarkable thing about Dick's performance was how predictable Arkansas's offense was in the second half, how obvious it was when the Hogs were going to pass and who was going to be the target. Even within these ridiculous constraints, Dick made a bunch of great plays.
After halftime, Arkansas passed one time on first down, and Dick completed a swing pass to a fullback for 8 yards.
Three times after the half, the Hogs passed on second down. Two of them were second and long. Dick found Monk for gains of 18 and 24 yards. The third was the bobble and pick on the goal line.
Of nine third down plays, the Razorbacks passed eight times. Yes, the ultimate irritation of all fans of good, smart offense, Arkansas worked its way eight times to third and long after running into the pile on first and second downs. It's a lot harder to pass on third and long, a lot harder to pass if you make it obvious when you are going to do it. Any coach who pretends to be concerned about the risks of the passing game looks like a fool when he makes it obvious when he's going to pass.
For one game, Casey Dick defied the odds and made his greatest throws on third down. In the second half Dick completed five passes for 73 yards on third downs. He had just two incompletions. Another play turned into a first down due to pass interference.
Sometimes Dick threaded the needle when Monk was double- or even triple-covered. The real cappers came on the Hogs' last drive, during which they ran out the final 5:05 on the clock.
Two times, the Hogs ran Felix Jones for little or nothing on first and second downs. Two third and long plays, absolutely no pretensions about where the ball was going to go, but Dick passed to Monk perfectly in stride, wonderful timing and placement, for gains of 26 and 14 yards, the two most important first downs of the game. They were the difference between giving the Gamecocks' passing game one more shot at our depleted defense, and the victory formation that the Razorbacks assumed with a little more than a minute left to play.
If Tennessee is doing anything this week, the Vols are coming up with a way to force Arkansas to find somebody other than Monk.
For the game as a whole, Casey Dick completed seven passes on third and long for 141 yards and a touchdown. That is more than 60% of his yards, made almost entirely to Marcus Monk on third and obvious. Not a plan you want to carry into another week. Not likely to recur.
Arkansas clearly had a chance to put away the Gamecocks and have no concern about how many times Blake Mitchell could throw the football. Going into the stupid shell, as in the past, slowed down the Razorback rushing game, which looked world class in the first half.
First half, tailbacks Darren McFadden and Felix Jones ran 16 times for 156 yards and two touchdowns. That's almost 10 yards a carry. Second half, McFadden and Jones went an overdone 30 times for 116 yards and zero scores. That's less than 4 yards a carry, and 53 of those yards came on two carries. The other 28 tries netted barely more than 2 yards an attempt. This is called stubbornly running one's head into a brick wall.
McFadden got his 219 yards on 25 carries, but too many of those carries were way too difficult, running into too much opposition, and that is why he was spent well before the end of the game. Using up McFadden too soon was almost a loser's mistake.
It really looked like Nutt started trying to run out the clock at 15:00 in the third quarter. Managing a shoulda been blowout win into a lucky-to-win is not smart coaching. Let's hope somebody gets his ego and check and recognizes exactly who was responsible for this hot start in SEC play, and who wasn't.
And the Razorbacks, sadly, really were lucky to win a game they should have won going away.
The initial defensive game plan worked to perfection. Reggie Herring completely solved Syvelle Newton, the "athlete" playing QB for Steve Spurrier. We were supposed to believe that South Carolina, after a really ugly start to the season, had become a completely different offense when Newton took over at QB, three games deep. The young, smallish offensive line was supposed to be incapable of protecting slowfoot QB Blake Mitchell, who had been the guy intended to marshal Spurrier's big play passing offense with all those tall receivers. You know, Sidney Rice for Heisman. Mitchell was a sack magnet. Newton, moved back from receiver, took pressure off the blocking and added a run threat.
Herring decided not to be so afraid of Newton's feet, not to have the line hang back and try to contain him. The Arkansas plan was to rush Newton, not give him time to throw. Surprise, Newton was not elusive enough to dodge the Razorback rush. He became the sack magnet, as South Carolina's plan never anticipated the defensive front not playing back on its heels.
All would have looked fine and dandy, had the Hogs not squandered a red zone opportunity late in the second quarter, settling for 3 points after having first and goal (two inside runs and a too-safe pass on third down). Had the Razorbacks not wasted a red zone trip late in the third quarter (with the high pass to Monk, bobble and pick). Had Arkansas not wasted a scoring chance late in the fourth quarter (two stuffed runs, a third and long incomplete to Monk, and a missed field goal).
But all was not fine and dandy. Spurrier did two things at halftime. He went back to Blake Mitchell, he tighted up the line gaps and put in blocking backs, and he started throwing the football nonstop. It took almost the entire second half before Herring adjusted.
Mitchell feasted on Herring's man coverages, and the pass rush completely disappeared. Mitchell never hit a long bomb--his biggest play went 23 yards--but he completed 15 of 21 after Newton had gone 7 for 19.
Mitchell guided the Gamecocks on twin 90+ yard drives for touchdowns, both taking less than 3 minutes of game time. Big targets Rice and Kenny McKinley ran outs and fades, with the occasional crossing pattern, and Arkansas's aggressive coverages were useless without a pass rush.
Herring finally adjusted his exposed strategy when the Hogs were near death. The missed field goal, leaving Arkansas ahead a sparse 26-20, left South Carolina in perfect position to drive to victory. Completions of 19 yards to McKinley and 14 yards to Rice had the Gamecocks sitting with first down at the Razorback 41 with more than 5 minutes to play.
At last, Herring switched to a zone coverage and sent only four useless rushers at Mitchell instead of five or six. This was the point where Mitchell showed why he had been replaced early in the season. He did not have the legs to exploit a four-man rush, and he did not have the judgment to read the zone. Mitchell's pass into traffic was picked off by senior Darius Vinnett, the oft-injured corner, giving the Razorbacks a chance to kill the rest of the game clock.
If not for Dick's two remarkably good throws on third and long that enabled Arkansas to retain possession at the end, South Carolina would have had another chance to throw against an Arkansas defense missing its starting free safety, Michael Grant, who took a freak knee injury during the Carolina comeback.
It was one-half a good show, one-half a scary regression to simplistic Razorback offenses of the past. Where does Houston Nutt go from here? He has all the opportunity in the world laying in his lap, the chance to become legend, if he does not choke and make all the same bad decisions that cost him in the past. Two running plays and one wide receiver will not win the SEC.
Number one fact to notice: Obsession with time of possession is a dangerous mistake.
First half time of possession: South Carolina 16:35, Arkansas 13:25.
First half score: Arkansas 23, South Carolina 6.
Second half time of possession: Arkansas 23:29, South Carolina 6:31.
Second half score: South Carolina 14, Arkansas 3.
Arkansas could have scored at least 11 more points if things had gone right in the second half, but they didn't go right, and they didn't because whoever was calling the plays went way too conservative.
In the second half, the Razorbacks ran the ball 16 times on first down, passed once. Those 16 runs went for a total of 34 yards. Eleven of those 16 runs went for 2 yards or less, for a subtotal of 1 net yard. Eleven runs for a net 1 yard. This was not what was supposed to happen when the Razorbacks added Gus Malzahn and Alex Wood to the coaching staff. Saturday night yawed way too close to the bright orange crayon Houston Nutt offense of the past.
It's understandable that, after throwing a passel of interceptions at Little Rock the week before, Mitch Mustain grabbed some pine after starting the South Carolina game with a pick. That was a bold move, one that begs the question of what would it take for Mustain to get another chance this season. In place of the true freshman, sophomore Casey Dick had great stats but also brought more warning signs of the "same old" offense.
Dick showed some rough spots. He did not show the same elan as Mustain in executing the offense, making his fakes obvious and taking a lot of the guesswork away from the defense. This had a lot to do with why the Gamecocks were able to suffocate the Hogs' rushing game on first downs after halftime. In addition, Dick never completed a downfield pass to anybody not named Monk, very similar to his passing tunnel vision of 2005. He made three dumps to fullbacks, eight completions to Marcus Monk, and that's it for the whole game. Nobody, not even the coach's dearest fans, ever wanted the Arkansas passing game to revert to the grossly simplistic junk that Houston Nutt regressed to during this decade.
If Mustain is unable to execute well in the passing offense, as has been apparent lately, Dick is certainly an adequate replacement even if he is being restricted in decision making. Even when not being allowed by his coach to throw to a secondary receiver, Dick made some spectacular plays under extremely difficult conditions.
If not for Monk's goal-line bobble that prolonged the game, Dick's statistics would have been outstanding, and the finish would not have been close. Dick should have been 12-19 for 237 yards and two touchdowns. It wasn't a particularly well-placed pass (and Dick also appeared inexperienced throwing the sideways tosses to the running backs), being quite a bit too high, but Monk should have caught it for a TD, or let it go past.
The really remarkable thing about Dick's performance was how predictable Arkansas's offense was in the second half, how obvious it was when the Hogs were going to pass and who was going to be the target. Even within these ridiculous constraints, Dick made a bunch of great plays.
After halftime, Arkansas passed one time on first down, and Dick completed a swing pass to a fullback for 8 yards.
Three times after the half, the Hogs passed on second down. Two of them were second and long. Dick found Monk for gains of 18 and 24 yards. The third was the bobble and pick on the goal line.
Of nine third down plays, the Razorbacks passed eight times. Yes, the ultimate irritation of all fans of good, smart offense, Arkansas worked its way eight times to third and long after running into the pile on first and second downs. It's a lot harder to pass on third and long, a lot harder to pass if you make it obvious when you are going to do it. Any coach who pretends to be concerned about the risks of the passing game looks like a fool when he makes it obvious when he's going to pass.
For one game, Casey Dick defied the odds and made his greatest throws on third down. In the second half Dick completed five passes for 73 yards on third downs. He had just two incompletions. Another play turned into a first down due to pass interference.
Sometimes Dick threaded the needle when Monk was double- or even triple-covered. The real cappers came on the Hogs' last drive, during which they ran out the final 5:05 on the clock.
Two times, the Hogs ran Felix Jones for little or nothing on first and second downs. Two third and long plays, absolutely no pretensions about where the ball was going to go, but Dick passed to Monk perfectly in stride, wonderful timing and placement, for gains of 26 and 14 yards, the two most important first downs of the game. They were the difference between giving the Gamecocks' passing game one more shot at our depleted defense, and the victory formation that the Razorbacks assumed with a little more than a minute left to play.
If Tennessee is doing anything this week, the Vols are coming up with a way to force Arkansas to find somebody other than Monk.
For the game as a whole, Casey Dick completed seven passes on third and long for 141 yards and a touchdown. That is more than 60% of his yards, made almost entirely to Marcus Monk on third and obvious. Not a plan you want to carry into another week. Not likely to recur.
Arkansas clearly had a chance to put away the Gamecocks and have no concern about how many times Blake Mitchell could throw the football. Going into the stupid shell, as in the past, slowed down the Razorback rushing game, which looked world class in the first half.
First half, tailbacks Darren McFadden and Felix Jones ran 16 times for 156 yards and two touchdowns. That's almost 10 yards a carry. Second half, McFadden and Jones went an overdone 30 times for 116 yards and zero scores. That's less than 4 yards a carry, and 53 of those yards came on two carries. The other 28 tries netted barely more than 2 yards an attempt. This is called stubbornly running one's head into a brick wall.
McFadden got his 219 yards on 25 carries, but too many of those carries were way too difficult, running into too much opposition, and that is why he was spent well before the end of the game. Using up McFadden too soon was almost a loser's mistake.
It really looked like Nutt started trying to run out the clock at 15:00 in the third quarter. Managing a shoulda been blowout win into a lucky-to-win is not smart coaching. Let's hope somebody gets his ego and check and recognizes exactly who was responsible for this hot start in SEC play, and who wasn't.
And the Razorbacks, sadly, really were lucky to win a game they should have won going away.
The initial defensive game plan worked to perfection. Reggie Herring completely solved Syvelle Newton, the "athlete" playing QB for Steve Spurrier. We were supposed to believe that South Carolina, after a really ugly start to the season, had become a completely different offense when Newton took over at QB, three games deep. The young, smallish offensive line was supposed to be incapable of protecting slowfoot QB Blake Mitchell, who had been the guy intended to marshal Spurrier's big play passing offense with all those tall receivers. You know, Sidney Rice for Heisman. Mitchell was a sack magnet. Newton, moved back from receiver, took pressure off the blocking and added a run threat.
Herring decided not to be so afraid of Newton's feet, not to have the line hang back and try to contain him. The Arkansas plan was to rush Newton, not give him time to throw. Surprise, Newton was not elusive enough to dodge the Razorback rush. He became the sack magnet, as South Carolina's plan never anticipated the defensive front not playing back on its heels.
All would have looked fine and dandy, had the Hogs not squandered a red zone opportunity late in the second quarter, settling for 3 points after having first and goal (two inside runs and a too-safe pass on third down). Had the Razorbacks not wasted a red zone trip late in the third quarter (with the high pass to Monk, bobble and pick). Had Arkansas not wasted a scoring chance late in the fourth quarter (two stuffed runs, a third and long incomplete to Monk, and a missed field goal).
But all was not fine and dandy. Spurrier did two things at halftime. He went back to Blake Mitchell, he tighted up the line gaps and put in blocking backs, and he started throwing the football nonstop. It took almost the entire second half before Herring adjusted.
Mitchell feasted on Herring's man coverages, and the pass rush completely disappeared. Mitchell never hit a long bomb--his biggest play went 23 yards--but he completed 15 of 21 after Newton had gone 7 for 19.
Mitchell guided the Gamecocks on twin 90+ yard drives for touchdowns, both taking less than 3 minutes of game time. Big targets Rice and Kenny McKinley ran outs and fades, with the occasional crossing pattern, and Arkansas's aggressive coverages were useless without a pass rush.
Herring finally adjusted his exposed strategy when the Hogs were near death. The missed field goal, leaving Arkansas ahead a sparse 26-20, left South Carolina in perfect position to drive to victory. Completions of 19 yards to McKinley and 14 yards to Rice had the Gamecocks sitting with first down at the Razorback 41 with more than 5 minutes to play.
At last, Herring switched to a zone coverage and sent only four useless rushers at Mitchell instead of five or six. This was the point where Mitchell showed why he had been replaced early in the season. He did not have the legs to exploit a four-man rush, and he did not have the judgment to read the zone. Mitchell's pass into traffic was picked off by senior Darius Vinnett, the oft-injured corner, giving the Razorbacks a chance to kill the rest of the game clock.
If not for Dick's two remarkably good throws on third and long that enabled Arkansas to retain possession at the end, South Carolina would have had another chance to throw against an Arkansas defense missing its starting free safety, Michael Grant, who took a freak knee injury during the Carolina comeback.
It was one-half a good show, one-half a scary regression to simplistic Razorback offenses of the past. Where does Houston Nutt go from here? He has all the opportunity in the world laying in his lap, the chance to become legend, if he does not choke and make all the same bad decisions that cost him in the past. Two running plays and one wide receiver will not win the SEC.
