Alabama Football: Breaking Down the Arkansas Offense
Nelson Chenault-US PRESSWIRE
The Alabama Crimson Tide are getting ready for a stern test this weekend in Fayetteville in their SEC opener against Arkansas.
The luster of this matchup was lost late last Saturday night when Louisiana-Monroe shocked the world by upsetting the 8th-ranked Razorbacks. Alabama was gearing up for a road matchup with a Top-10 team and their biggest test to date in the 2012 season, and now they head to Fayetteville to take on an Arkansas team unranked in the AP Poll and 21st in the Coaches Poll.
Even though the nation has soured on Arkansas, the Hogs will still be a formidable test for the Crimson Tide. You are kidding yourself if you think Alabama can play the way they did last week against Western Kentucky and walk out of War Memorial Stadium with a win.
This is still a very talented football team Alabama will be lining up against on Saturday afternoon, and they cannot be taken lightly. The Hogs have extra motivation for this game, and they know that they could go a long way to erasing last week’s loss from their memories with an upset of the Crimson Tide.
Everyone is betting against Arkansas, and the spread for this game has inched up over 20 points, which is a slap in the face to an Arkansas team that came into the season as a serious threat for the SEC Championship.
The biggest reason Arkansas lost to Louisiana-Monroe was the injury to quarterback Tyler Wilson, and whether or not he plays on Saturday figures to have a big impact on the game.
Wilson was knocked out of last Saturday’s game with an apparent concussion, and he has yet to practice so far this week. The Arkansas offense unraveled after Wilson’s injury, putting up just 10 more points in the game, three of which came on an overtime field goal by Zach Hocker.
Before Wilson was knocked out of the game, he completed 11 of his 20 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns. In the first two games of the season, Wilson completed 64 percent of his passes for 563 yards, five touchdowns and one interception.
Freshman backup Brandon Allen entered the game after the injury to Wilson, and struggled mightily against the Warhawks defense. Allen was just 6-of-20 passing for 85 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Regardless of who lines up under center for the Razorbacks, a big part of Alabama’s defensive gameplan will be to put pressure on the quarterback. Alabama has four sacks on the season, with three of them coming against Western Kentucky last week. Alabama may not have sacked Tyler Wilson a lot last season, but they put a lot of pressure on him and knocked him down numerous times.
The Tide will bring pressure in hopes of getting the opposing quarterback, especially an inexperienced guy like Allen, to make quick decisions against complex coverages.
The Arkansas offensive line has struggled so far this season, and while they haven’t given up many sacks, they allowed Tyler Wilson to get hit a ton last week, and that inevitably led to his injury. If the Hogs offensive line struggled against a Sun Belt defense, they should have their hands full against Alabama’s defensive front.
The biggest surprise about the Arkansas offense is the way they have struggled running the ball in their first two games against Jacksonville State and Louisiana-Monroe. The Hogs rank 87th in the country in rushing offense so far this season. Knile Davis seems healthy enough, and there is no denying he is one of the top running backs in the SEC when he is healthy, but the offensive line hasn’t been opening up running lanes for the junior running back.
Davis has only 132 rushing yards this year on 24 carries, averaging 3.9 yards per attempt. It will be imperative for the Hogs to be able to run the ball, especially with the possibility of Brandon Allen making his first career start.
Rushing yards will be hard to come by for the Razorbacks as Alabama has given up 57.5 yards per game through two games. This game features one of the best rushing defenses in the nation against one of the worst rushing offenses. Arkansas does have potential in the running game with Davis, but there has been nothing so far this season that suggests that Arkansas will be able to run the ball against Alabama.
The health of Dee Milliner will be important for this game. He probably could have played last week, but was held out for precautionary reasons. Milliner going against Cobi Hamilton figures to be a big matchup on Saturday.
The Crimson Tide struggled against Western Kentucky tight end Jack Doyle last week, allowing him to penetrate the middle of the field and catch 7 passes for 45 yards. This week Alabama will be facing arguably the best tight end in the SEC in Chris Gragg, who is off to a strong start to 2012. Gragg figures to be on the shortlist of candidates for the Mackey Award.
Gragg is Arkansas’ leading receiver after two games with 14 receptions for 193 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Containing Gragg will be a key to getting the victory for Alabama.
With or without Tyler Wilson, the Arkansas offense has enough weapons to cause the Alabama defense problems, and it will be a great early season test for a young defense.
On Friday, I’ll preview the Arkansas defense.
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