By Harry King
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Someday, maybe, framing Arkansas-Alabama as genius coach vs. genius coach will be accurate. At the moment, it’s a convenient pigeonhole for previewing the game.0
Offensive maestro Bobby Petrino was short-handed against defensive wizard Nick Saban on Saturday. Meticulous preparation of talented skill players and brilliant schemes are not enough against a superb defensive. The Razorbacks hit a few 20-yard-plus plays with quarterback Ryan Mallet, but there was no consistency in the 35-7 loss and much of that is at the feet of the offensive line. During the first three periods, Arkansas converted twice on the third down. The 1o failures were prefaced by a ominous bell and, “It’s Third Down” in a voice perfect for Halloween on the P.A.
Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain compensates for the few mistakes in front of him and the cornerback Javier Arenas is a force unlike any on Arkansas’ roster. He was so close to breaking a couple of kick returns that Dylan Breeding tried to rugby-style sidestep to kick away from him. Lorenzo Washington blocked that, setting up the Crimson Tide’s fourth touchdown.
Mallet’s arm strength is far superior to that of Greg McElroy, yet the Alabama quarterback posted much better numbers. Most of the time, McElroy dinked and dumped. One of the exceptions was a playground call — arm fake by McElroy: stop-and-go by Marquis Maze — that suckered Rudell Crim into one step forward and resulted in an 80-yard touchdown. The entire Arkansas defense bit on a trick play that ended with McElroy almost waiting too long to throw to Julio Jones for 50 yards and 14-0.
McElroy was 17-of-24 for 291 yards and three touchdowns and Mallet was 12-of-35 for 160 and one touchdown. Part of the rub was that Mallet was sacked three times in the first half. He also threw a fourth-quarter interception that Saban chose to sit on with a string of running plays.
Mallet is not to blame for all the incompletes, but he was not spot-on as he was during the first 40 minutes against Georgia.
Arriving post-kickoff because the departure from Springdale was delayed by a storm near Tuscaloosa, the first play viewed in-person was a Mallet attempt with 365 pound Terrance Cody in pursuit. Mallet threw it away. That pressure turned out to be a precursor of pass attempts to come.
Mallet missed on 14-of-21 in the first half and the running game was not enough to distract the rush, producing only 55 yards by the backs. During the first half, Mallet’s misses included a drop by Jarius Wright in front of the Arkansas bench, a throw high over the head of 6-foot-3 Greg Childs, safety Robby Green’s break-up of a pass slightly behind Wright, a drop by Childs with a defender two steps away, and a too-wide throw from Michael Smith.
As it turned out, we could have missed the first 14 minutes. The gutsy fake punt from the Arkansas 25 was worth seeing and Mallet followed with two completions from 33 yards, the sort of sequence that might rattle a lesser opponent.
Instead, Alabama rushed four inside and Arenas from the outside and Mallet lost 8. On third down, Mallet earned a delay of game trying to counter McClain’s instructions to the defense. A third-down was low and outside.
On the plus side, Arkansas won’t see a defense as good as Alabama more than twice the rest of the season.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com
