Saturday's game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Arkansas Razorbacks has the makings of an excellent matchup.With star Arkansas wide receiver Marcus Monk out after knee surgery and a young Arkansas O-line still coming together, Bama's defense will be concentrated on Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.
After a solid performance against Vandy, many fans believe new coach Nick Saban has turned the Tide towards better things.
The fact that Arkansas is #16 and Alabama is unranked is irrelevant; the Razorbacks never perform well at 'Bama. The home crowd is sure to be deafening, making it almost impossible for the Arkansas O to audible at the line.
With the Crimson Tide coming off an impressive start to the season and the Hogs returning from a bye week, I expect the winner here to be the team that makes the least mistakes.
6 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Dave Finocchio about 1 year ago
Should be a great game. With Monk out, think we should expect to see a steady diet of the Wildcat?
That's my best guess given the difficulty to communicate at the line of scrimmage coupled with Monk's absence. May as well give the ball right to McFadden.
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Leon Wynn about 1 year ago
I think both teams will try to keep it on the ground and the game will be filled with brutal performances from both teams backfield.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
I heard that Arkansas did not complete a forward pass until the third quarter in their game vs. Troy. If that is the case, then I deffinatly expect to see Arkansas focus almost exclusively on the rush (with the best backfeild in the nation why not?). I think Bama will try to throw the ball downfeild however, despite their struggles vs. Vandy inthe passing game. Bama has too many weapons to not keep throwing. Also, Grant, Johns, and Coffee cannot hope to compete with Mcfadden and Jones, their ability to gain big yards is predicated on Bama being able to, or at least threatening to, make completions down the feild. I think JP Wilson will have a much better week than he did vs. Vandy and he will stretch the secondary with throws to DJ Hall and (unhearlded until this weekend) Mike McCoy (who'll grab anything thrown his way, looks like a young Larry Fitzgerald to this Phoenix dwelling Bama fan) This should be a great matchup, because I personally feel that while Arkansas was "lucky" to win last year (3 missed FG's and PAT) I also think Bama was lucky because Mcfadden was not at his best. I dont think Arkansas will finsh the year as a ranked team either way, but if Bama doesn't win this one, then the great Saban led turnaround that everyone is expecting, will have to wait another year. (though it's looking like the streak of 5 losses to Auburn is going to end, so Saban will still be highly regarded for that)
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Chris Courtney about 1 year ago
The writer who alleged that Arkansas didn't complete a pass until the third quarter is an idiot. ESPN play-by-play shows them completing passes within the first five minutes of the game. Arkansas' backup receivers have got to catch the ball when it comes to them. Casey Dick went 11-20 with 7 dropped passes, which tells me that he's a helluva lot more accurate (potential 18-20) than the final numbers indicate.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Chris,
No one alleged that Arkansas didn't complete a pass until the third quarter. The phrase was "forward pass", and the writer was correct. Arkansas did not complete a pass to a wide receive until Dick hit Fish in the third quarter. The other passes were mostly to running backs Hillis and McFadden and those were mostly lateral passes.
In any case, it would be ridiculous for anyone to argue that Arkansas has an effective passing game. Especially with Monk on the sidelines. I'd look for them to shake things up quite a bit at the Wildcat/hog/racehorse or whatever they are calling that formation this week. With the triple attack of McFadden, Jones and Hillis expect to see some big plays on the ground and a couple of passes from McFadden for the Heisman highlight reel.
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Leon Wynn about 1 year ago
Roll Tide!
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