Arkansas Loss At Alabama: Pressured, Nickeled and Dimed to Death

The daunting Alabama defense proved too much of a match for the arm, physical strength, and mental toughness of Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett.

Pressure was the key to the Tide's defensive success, while coverage by the Alabama secondary was better than usual, using a mixture of nickel, dime, and sometimes quarter packages.

More often than not, Smart defense (Defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart) kept the redshirt sophomore confused after the snap, blitzing the inside linebackers and using outside linebackers to zone cover tight ends and receivers coming out of the backfield.

This variation of the Cover 2 defense allowed for the Tide safeties to assist the cornerbacks on deep routes that were seldom open.  When they were open, pressure packages by the front seven kept Mallet backpedaling, off-balance, and unable to set his feet to properly to deliver the long ball.

Mallett finished the first half of play with only 74 yards passing (seven completions of 21 attempts), way off of his average for the first two games.  In the end, the Razorback QB completed just 12 of 35 attempts for 160 yards.

Prior to the Alabama contest, Mallett averaged 358 yards per game.

When given time for a short respite in the first drive of the second half, Mallett was 3 for 3, connecting on an 18 yard fade route in the far corner of the Alabama end zone.

On that play, Greg Childs was matched against a shorter defender, Kareem Jackson, due to a blown coverage that yielded the touchdown.

"But the key was pressure," stated Alabama linebacker, Corey Reamer, in the post-game press conference.

Relentless pressure on the night totaled up three sacks, eight hurries, eight tackles for loss, eight pass breakups, and countless miscues by the Arkansas offense.

Saban stated, "We gave a lot of different looks, played a lot of odd stuff.  Sometimes we dropped as many as eight into coverage and played a little more zone than we normally would."

On at least three occasions, Mallett delivered the ball to his receiver but the Alabama defense reacted so quickly and timed hits so effectively to loosen the receivers' grip on the ball. 

Two of the timely drops would have been for big gains in this hard-fought match.

In the end, tough, well executed defense won out over an offense that has proven lethal when given time.  While the Razorbacks return to Fayetteville with their tails trimmed, they are not done for the season.

The Arkansas defense showed signs of improvement in the first half. They will have to sustain the effort for a full 60 minutes in order to win.

With Auburn, Florida, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and LSU slated on this gauntlet of an SEC schedule, the Razorback offense must find the right combination of protection, vertical passing, and power running to accomplish a complete victory.