Tuesday Notes: Rushing to an answer
Arkansas hasn’t scored in the first quarter this season, and its running game has struggled off and on, especially last Saturday against the Longhorns in a 52-10 loss. Texas’ defense held the Razorbacks’ running game to 11 yards on 26 attempts.
Arkansas is now last in the SEC in rushing, averaging 90.5 yards a game after leading the SEC in that department four out of the last five years.
So what do the slow-starting Hogs have to do to get some more production and shore up the running game? Well, one, they can’t shoot themselves in the foot. And two, the coaches are, well, working on it as No. 12 Florida comes to town Saturday.
“We tried to get a little package that we definitely think we can execute in this game,” UA offensive coordinator Paul Petrino said. “We worked hard on that. That’s something we need to improve.”
Arkansas has been outscored 34-0 in the first quarter and 86-23 before halftime in its first four games.
“When you get behind like that, it is hard to keep running,” Petrino said Tuesday.
The Razorbacks have also been down double digits in every game this season and are eighth in the SEC in red zone offense, converting nine of 11 attempts for points inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Arkansas’ quarterbacks have been sacked 17 times this season, including a season-high seven against the Longhorns. The Hogs, as you would imagine, have given up the most sacks — along with South Carolina — in the SEC.
VIDEO: Stretch that further and you’ll see that Arkansas has allowed the most sacks per game in the nation.
“I don’t think our problem has been that we wanted it to happen, or we haven’t been determined,” UA offensive line coach Mike Summers said. “It’s that we haven’t consistently performed. If you block a guy good five times, then don’t block a guy one time, you give up a sack. You have to have consistency to perform and we haven’t done that.”
Then there’s the three interceptions returned for touchdowns in the last two games.
“Yeah, we’ve got to start faster no matter what we are doing,” Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick said. “We can’t drive down there and not get any points. We’ve got to put some points on the board.”
Florida doesn’t seem to provide the Hogs any slack this weekend after a stunning 31-30 loss to Ole Miss in Gainesville, Fla. The Arkansas coaches and players expect plenty of blitzes from the Gators Saturday morning.
Photo by Brooke McNeely, Northwest Arkansas Times
– Brandon Marcello
Subscribe to RSS feed | 
Follow us on Twitter | 
Add us on Facebook
One Response to “Tuesday Notes: Rushing to an answer”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This story underscores the need for a strong running game. Now, that is not to imply that passing isn’t needed; I suspect that if we could have passed the ball effectively the last two seasons, we might be talking about our performances in BCS bowls after those seasons, especially 2006. However, coaches are saying all the time that they want to stop the run on defense, first and foremost, and, on the flip side, that they want to establish the running game offensively early. Even with a predominately passing offense, an effective running game is paramount to success. I can understand our recent struggles in the passing game; the emphasis on that is new, and the players are still learning that. But, we should be able to have a strong running game because that is what the current players are used to, especially the offensive line. Hopefully we can put together a strong rushing performance this week to take some of the pressure off of Casey.