Arkansas reax

AU took some lumps Saturday night in Fayetteville as the Tigers dropped their first SEC game in over two years to the Razorbacks. Despite the score, AU was in this game until around the end of the third quarter. AU was driving to tie the game and, I believe, had a penalty that forced them to punt. AU downed the punt at the 8 yard line and still were in pretty good shape until Lemonier lost containment on the edge and Adams ran for a 92 yard touchdown. By the way, that was the longest touchdown play given up by AU, ever. After that, AU was never able to get any kind of offensive threat going and Arky kicked a field goal to make it a three score game and out of reach for any kind of comeback.

Likes:
Special teams stepped it up once again. Jay Boulwere deserves every bit of money/raise he got this year. This unit has been amazing and has kept us in games more than any other. Despite the 11 yard shank early in the game, Clark had a 40 yard average on his punts and the majority were downed inside the 20 and Arkansas returned exactly zero! Parkey continued his booming on kickoffs and had two of three for touchbacks. Mason almost had a huge error when he muffed one kickoff and let it lie there as the ref looked at him (live ball my man!). Also, D. Benton kicked a punt and although it was ruled he was blocked into the ball, it could have just as easily been ruled a live ball. Bray did well fielding the ball on punts and Mason hit the line hard on kick returns.

AU did really well running the ball and the O-line did a pretty good job blocking for the most part. Dyer was his usual tough self and often dragged a couple of defenders for extra yards.

I thought the defense played pretty dang good considering the opponent and given the fact the offense left the defense with a short field multiple times. AU held Arky to 33 yards less than their average for the season and kept UA from hitting big plays, sans the Adams run. Also, this was the first time AU held Arky under 300 yards passing since Houston Nutt was roaming the sidelines for the Hawgs.

Dislikes:
Penalties! I haven't had to mention that this year, but Saturday AU had 11 for 105 yards. WTC? Multiple drive killing holding calls and another (ANOTHER!!!!!!!) unsportsmanlike penalty. Coach, please get these guys under control with that. I understand emotions run high and these are kids, but still. Those penalties kill and AU isn't good enough to overcome those.

Dropped balls/WR play - Trotter was 6 of 19 and 7 of those were dropped balls and his only interception went through D. Benton's hands. Usually sure handed Lutzenkirchen dropped two! This was supposed to be Benton's time to shine in the wake of Blake's injury, but he did not have a very good game at all. He dropped at least two (that I can remember) and kicked the ball on a punt after it hit the ground. Blocking on the edge was not great and really has to improve if AU is going to be successful running the ball.

Linebacker play against the pass - AU is just slow at LB. Run stopping was fantastic (again, sans Adams run), but against the pass, AU LB's cannot keep up with TE's and RB's. They just can't. It is frustrating b/c all a team has to do is run screens and drags across the middle and they get 6-9 yards every time.

QB play - ok, we all know Trotter has not played really well the last 3 games. Saturday, it came to a head for me. Granted, he had many dropped balls but the general hesitancy and lack of scrambling ability is killing me. I know Frazier threw two picks, but he is a freshman and I expect him to make mistakes like throwing into double coverage. I don't expect that with a fourth year junior that's been in the system 3 years. Yes, this is his first year to start but he should be better and getting better with each game and Trotter is not. Frazier does add an ability to run that Trotter does not so teams will have to account for that. I am almost to the point of letting Frazier get more involved and implementing more of the playbook for him. Let's face it; Trotter is not a top tier QB. I knew that from the start, but I didn't think that the whole offensive scheme would change. AU was running the ball, down by 3 scores with 10 min left probably because of the lack of the passing game.

The question now is, is it time to start Frazier and work on next year? I wouldn't mind that, but knowing Chizik and Malzahn, that's not going to happen right now. They didn't do it with Todd in 2009 and putting Frazier in for his first start against UF and then @ LSU would not be wise. Those decisions are why they make the mega bucks.

If Trotter continues to digress, I do expect to see at least a change to Moseley, however, he is comprable to Trotter, i.e. not a threat to run. Time will only tell.