Arkansas must turn page quickly to prepare for tough road test against Utah
Summary
Pick/market: Ryan Silverfield ‘s debut was one to forget for the Arkansas football team.
Ryan Silverfield
‘s debut was one to forget for the
Arkansas
football team. Costly penalties, turnovers and an overall bad showing on offense led to a sleepy 31-14 win over North Alabama on Saturday at Razorback Stadium.
The Head Hog was visibly upset and pulled no punches when he talked about the way his team played,
even voicing his frustrations
during his halftime interview. The Razorbacks have a tough test on the road against No. 21 Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium this weekend.
“Ultimately, not being able to take care of the football – we said we want to play clean, disciplined football, and take care of the football,” Silverfield said postgame. “We didn’t do that. So I’ve got to find a way to get my message across and I’ve got to find a way really, really quickly to get that done.
“Our players understand this. We tell them to take care of their bodies, but we got a quick turnaround and get ready for a heck of a challenge on the road versus Utah.”
Utes offense was firing on all cylinders
Like Arkansas, Utah opened its season against an FCS opponent in the Idaho Vandals. But unlike Arkansas, the Utes dispatched of their opponent early and put on a show while doing so.
Utah had a couple miscues in the first half, but ultimately led 31-7 at the half. It poured it on in the second and ended up winning 66-14 on Thursday night.
Starting quarterback
Devon Dampier
was almost flawless through the air and finished 13-of-18 for 176 yards and three touchdowns. He added another 31 yards on six carries on the ground.
Utah head coach
Morgan Scalley
was able to insert his backup quarterback,
Byrd Ficklin
, who added two touchdown passes and 70 yards on the ground. As a team, the Utes put up 633 yards — 269 through the air and 364 on the ground — and punted just once.
Also unlike Arkansas, Utah played a clean game. They were only flagged once and didn’t turn the ball over at all. The offensive line didn’t give up any sacks and Utah was 8-for-12 on third down.
What Arkansas needs to fix before this weekend
Turnovers
There’s a laundry list of issues the Razorbacks must address if they want this game to stay competitive. First and foremost is the turnovers.
For a team whose coaching staff preached ball security, it didn’t show up on Saturday. Quarterback KJ Jackson was strip-sacked in his own territory and running back Sutton Smith also coughed it up at the Hogs’ 35-yard line. The latter of those two fumbles directly led to North Alabama’s first touchdown of the game.
“That’s the one thing we preach,” Silverfield said. “And for it to show up and rear its ugly head, that’s not good, and the discipline as well. I don’t look at a ton of stats, but I am disappointed. We constantly talk about that ball security is everything, And to be able to get takeaways has got to be part of what we do, defensively. But yeah, that and the penalties makes me sick to my stomach.”
That doesn’t include Jackson’s interception in the end zone at the end of the first half. Lions punter Charles Mulcahy shanked a punt that gave the Hogs the ball near the red zone with less than a minute left and Jackson’s pick cost the team at least three points.
Penalties
Penalties were also a real problem and negated some big plays that might have changed how the fans felt leaving the stadium on that hot Saturday.
Jeremy Evans
was flagged for a block in the back on a punt return that Smith took all the way to the 10-yard line.
Malachi Breland
got caught as an ineligible receiver downfield on a play where Jackson hit
Antonio Jordan
for a 27-yard gain.
Left tackle
Kavion Broussard
was flagged for holding twice. All in all, the Hogs had eight penalties for 74 yards.
Offensive line couldn’t get a push
Arkansas’ bread and butter was supposed to be the run game, but it was nearly nonexistent on Saturday.
The Hogs ran the ball 49 times and had a paltry 148 yards to show for it — an average of three yards per carry. Braylen Russell had the most carries with 17 and had just 49 yards. The only rusher who had a run longer than 15 yards was wide receiver Jelani Watkins on an end-around in the first half.
North Alabama has a strong run defense and held its previous opponent to -8 yards on the ground, but it’s still an FCS opponent and not one you’d think could bully the Arkansas offensive line like it did.
“There were some ‘Day 1’ things, but they would bring two off the edge on the play side, and we didn’t make the proper adjustment in-game,” Silverfield said. “There’s things like two guys on the backside, and we didn’t make the proper adjustment backside of the read. It’s a combination.”
What’s next for Arkansas football
Arkansas heads back to the practice field and looks to fix the mistakes it made in the stadium last Saturday in preparation for, at least for now, the biggest game of the season.
The Hogs will travel to Rice-Eccles Stadium to play the Utah Utes on Saturday in Salt Lake City. Kickoff is set for 9:15 p.m. CT and the game will air on ESPN.
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Teams:
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