The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Week 3

Fayetteville, AR – This week the Hogs face their first Power 5 opponent the BYU cougars. The Cougars rolled into town with a 2-0 record and chip on their shoulder after being served a 52 – 35 loss in Provo where BYU is from. Unfortunately, for the great fans of this team we lost 38-31. Well there wasn’t much Good there was plenty of Bad and Ugly to discuss.

THE GOOD

In the first 5 minutes of this game, I thought certainly we would be singing the praises of every starter and every coach on this Arkansas Razorback team. AJ Green immediately answered the weeks long question about the run game. A monster run down the sideline secured the first points on the board for the Hogs. The next score gave us exactly what every Razorback fan had been waiting for. An Isaiah Sategna 87-yard punt return. He had shown many flashes of speed in the previous two outings this year. Leaving Hog fans on the edge of their seat every time the ball is kicked toward him.

KJ Jefferson is the best Hog on the field anytime the offense is on the field. There is moments when KJ just commands when he’s on the field. Some of his passes tonight had amazing touch. I saw him picking up blocks to help secure first downs. With only a few minutes before half he was evading their best defensive player. There was a moment when had a large run and knew he had time on the clock so instead of leaning his shoulder and risking the fumble he just went out of bounds. Very few times would old KJ do this. He also incorporated the highest rated recruit we had in the most recent class. Luke Hasz ran great routes and had made plays when they had to be made. Also, I have to mention that if you were viewing on TV seeing QB1 march down the field, score, then go to the sideline and remove his Invisalign to have a handful of skittles.

THE BAD

KJ is an offensive weapon and is surrounded by a decent running room (even without Rocket Sanders) and the receivers and tight ends are really proving themselves out there. However, the combination of bad offensive play calling and poor offensive line play not even superman could win in that situation. In this new offense it definitely seems like KJ has been taught to stay in the pocket more and run even less. That would be okay if he had more time to be in the pocket. Before a route could even develop the quarterback was already drowning in a sea of BYU blue. Hogs had the ball in a 3rd and 6 situation on their first possession after the half. KJ can move but I just don’t believe a Quarter back designed run was the right move. Later in the game the Razorbacks were leading 31-21 and we were in a 4th and 1. Every person wanted us to carry momentum and let the large QB1 get under center and smash it for one more yard to keep the Cougars off the field and head toward extending the lead. Instead, we find a shotgun formation, which wound up being a handoff that wasn’t even particularly close to the first down marker. Potentially the worst play call of the whole game. The only thing that prevented us from doing it again was a false start from our Offensive line having a false start.

THE UGLY

Penalties, penalties, and more penalties. A total of 14 penalties for 125 yard will not work once we get to conference play. They weren’t only penalties. They we momentum changing, game defining penalties. Erasing runs huge first down runs and giving the opponent a fresh set of downs as the clock winds down, just can’t happen. Playing football at this level you need some ice in your veins and can not panic when the moment is too big. There was certainly times that some calls were highly questionable like the Luke Hasz pass interference or the “roughing the passer” that just seemed more like a football play. Those penalties aside we still gave up far too many free yards.