Outside of the terrible first half, which happens to the best of teams in their week one game, I felt like my breakdown was pretty accurate. I had Points and Over. I'm not going to be the guy that blames the first half on KJ, I'm also not going to blame it on Briles', Pittman, or anyone else.
I am going to blame the first half on expectations. The entire state of Arkansas expects this team to win. Not just win, but win half of their games or more. That is something nobody on this team has experienced with the Hogs(EDIT: TJ Hammond was actual on the 2016 team). We haven't had a winning season since 2016.
I am also going to blame it on extremely picky officiating and Rice players conditioning. Some of those penalties are on us. I absolutely know that, but there was no rhythm to be had with that crew last night. they were one of the worst I saw yesterday. We were going to fast for Rice and it was obvious in the way they were cramping on every other play.
Ok so lets break it down.
OFFENSE:
KJ Jefferson 12/21 for 128 yards and 1 TD passing. Also added 9 carries for 89 and 2 TD. I'm not going to dog a kid that accounted for 3 of our touchdowns and 58% of our offense. Obviously he has to get better and settle in.
I'll Just break it down drive by drive.
His first overthrow to Treylon was a bad throw. A lot of junior high QB's can make that throw. KJ will make that throw too. I don't expect that too happen again this year.
On the second drive he made an excellent play feeling the front side pressure, avoiding pressure and keeping our drive alive. Tyson Morris Dropped a well thrown ball on 1st and 10 from the Rice 34. KJ had pressure in his face, rolling to the weak side and split 2 defenders and hit Morris in the chest with it. On the next play Briles' dials up a great draw play that clears the linebackers out in man coverage and KJ's athletic ability goes the distance. It's important to note that there wasn't an injury or penalty on this drive and our offense looked in sync.
On our third drive we have a little zone run that didn't pop and then Burks drops a soft pass that he NEVER should drop. That play would've set us up in 3rd and manageable but our best player just made a mental error. 3rd and 8, KJ feels Clary get pushed back to him and tries to throw it over him to hit Burks, but it was overthrown out of bounds.
4th drive opens with Trelon Smith missing his hole and a holding call on Treylon Burks. In my opinion Burks just whooped his man. I didn't see anything worth a holding call. So now we are 1st and 19 from our own 11. KJ completes a quick stop to warren to try and get something back. I like the call because Rice stays in man a lot of this game and if Warren breaks that we have a chance for an explosive play on a free route. Next play to smith he makes an athletic run to get us back to the original LOS. 3rd and 9 now. KJ hits a slant to burks and gets a couple yards, he should've hit warren on the single side slant. He was deeper down field and wide open.
5th drive starts with a great call. Play action back shoulder to Warren and he makes the catch, but unfortunately ran himself out of bounds. So now we are behind the chains on our own 18 instead of midfield. on 2nd down we hit a good stop route to Burks and he zigs and zags to make it 2nd and 5. Rice has a convenient injury to stop momentum. The kid was actually hurt, but it was bad timing for us. Smith gets us the first down on the next play. Another stop route to Morris gets us to 2nd and 4, Trelon Smith makes a good run to pick up the 1st and then KJ throws a pick. That was a terrible decision, he has to throw that ball away.
6th Drive KJ breaks off a 7 yard run to put us ahead of the chains. On second and 3 Burks drops the slant that would give us a first down. Kern whiffs a block on the sweep to burks and we have to punt.
7th drive the Rice end plays the read option perfect for no gain. 2nd down, Smith picks up 7. 3rd and 3 Stromberg hits himself in the ass with the ball on the snap. Kills our drive.
8th drive was at the end of the half, only 37 seconds on the clock. 1st and there was nothing open and KJ threw it away, 2nd and 10. Smith gets 8 on a draw play and we let the clock run out.
2nd half we looked much better
1st drive we drive down the field and KJ hits every pass, then punches it in himself.
2nd drive. Pick up 10 on the slant to burks. Rice cramps up. KJ rolls over a Rice defender for the 1st down. Rocket gets 2 nice runs and then Rice cramps up again. Nice throw to Kern for a first down. Rocket for another 10 yards. Rocket gets stuffed up a couple times, Smith cant convert for the first down. We settle for the field goal.
3rd drive False start on Myron Cunningham puts us behind the chains. Smith gets stuffed up the left side. KJ over throws Warren. On 3rd down KJ overthrows Thompson while getting hit, Draws a PI call. Smith punches it in from the 2.
4th drive. Great blitz by Rice. KJ has to eat a sack. Warren drops a slant. Ketron makes a nice catch and I thought it was a pretty good throw after looking at it again. KJ saw a safety spying the route and threw it where Ketron had to sit on it. either way we have to punt.
5th Drive
KJ breaks one for 68 on a speed option. Ketron makes a good block, but his hand are too wide not to call that one. It was a hold IMO. Smith picks up 5 on a zone run. Nice split zone Play action to Burks coupled with a ghost late hit, we have it inside the 10. KJ throws a strike to Morris in the corner for the TD.
6th drive was a steady dose of dom Johnson (looked very slimmed up)and he punches it in for the cover.
Defense
As advertised, I think this unit can be special. Thought Parker played well in place of Grant. Catalon is an all america talent. Bumper had a hell of a game.
Special Teams
It was refreshing to watch us kick it out of the back of the end zone. The fumble on the opening kick was mind numbing. The blocked punt was super concerning. I thought Cam Little for sure looked the part of a 5* kicker.
Overall thoughts
The first half was sloppy and it wasn't all KJs fault. Everyone was out of sync. I think Briles called a good conservative game. I think when you watch the game back a few times you will see it wasn't as bad as it looked live. Rice will be a pretty decent team. I was super surprised they came out and ran 0 coverage most of the game and I'm sure there's no way Kendal expected to see 0 coverage and heavy blitzing. Great game planning on the part of Rice to try and rattle KJ early. Defense for the hogs was impressive to me. Gotta eliminate the targeting penalties. I think it is a terrible rule, but it's the rule, we can't do that. On to Texas!!! I'll try and get my breakdown out for them tomorrow sometime.
I am going to blame the first half on expectations. The entire state of Arkansas expects this team to win. Not just win, but win half of their games or more. That is something nobody on this team has experienced with the Hogs(EDIT: TJ Hammond was actual on the 2016 team). We haven't had a winning season since 2016.
I am also going to blame it on extremely picky officiating and Rice players conditioning. Some of those penalties are on us. I absolutely know that, but there was no rhythm to be had with that crew last night. they were one of the worst I saw yesterday. We were going to fast for Rice and it was obvious in the way they were cramping on every other play.
Ok so lets break it down.
OFFENSE:
KJ Jefferson 12/21 for 128 yards and 1 TD passing. Also added 9 carries for 89 and 2 TD. I'm not going to dog a kid that accounted for 3 of our touchdowns and 58% of our offense. Obviously he has to get better and settle in.
I'll Just break it down drive by drive.
His first overthrow to Treylon was a bad throw. A lot of junior high QB's can make that throw. KJ will make that throw too. I don't expect that too happen again this year.
On the second drive he made an excellent play feeling the front side pressure, avoiding pressure and keeping our drive alive. Tyson Morris Dropped a well thrown ball on 1st and 10 from the Rice 34. KJ had pressure in his face, rolling to the weak side and split 2 defenders and hit Morris in the chest with it. On the next play Briles' dials up a great draw play that clears the linebackers out in man coverage and KJ's athletic ability goes the distance. It's important to note that there wasn't an injury or penalty on this drive and our offense looked in sync.
On our third drive we have a little zone run that didn't pop and then Burks drops a soft pass that he NEVER should drop. That play would've set us up in 3rd and manageable but our best player just made a mental error. 3rd and 8, KJ feels Clary get pushed back to him and tries to throw it over him to hit Burks, but it was overthrown out of bounds.
4th drive opens with Trelon Smith missing his hole and a holding call on Treylon Burks. In my opinion Burks just whooped his man. I didn't see anything worth a holding call. So now we are 1st and 19 from our own 11. KJ completes a quick stop to warren to try and get something back. I like the call because Rice stays in man a lot of this game and if Warren breaks that we have a chance for an explosive play on a free route. Next play to smith he makes an athletic run to get us back to the original LOS. 3rd and 9 now. KJ hits a slant to burks and gets a couple yards, he should've hit warren on the single side slant. He was deeper down field and wide open.
5th drive starts with a great call. Play action back shoulder to Warren and he makes the catch, but unfortunately ran himself out of bounds. So now we are behind the chains on our own 18 instead of midfield. on 2nd down we hit a good stop route to Burks and he zigs and zags to make it 2nd and 5. Rice has a convenient injury to stop momentum. The kid was actually hurt, but it was bad timing for us. Smith gets us the first down on the next play. Another stop route to Morris gets us to 2nd and 4, Trelon Smith makes a good run to pick up the 1st and then KJ throws a pick. That was a terrible decision, he has to throw that ball away.
6th Drive KJ breaks off a 7 yard run to put us ahead of the chains. On second and 3 Burks drops the slant that would give us a first down. Kern whiffs a block on the sweep to burks and we have to punt.
7th drive the Rice end plays the read option perfect for no gain. 2nd down, Smith picks up 7. 3rd and 3 Stromberg hits himself in the ass with the ball on the snap. Kills our drive.
8th drive was at the end of the half, only 37 seconds on the clock. 1st and there was nothing open and KJ threw it away, 2nd and 10. Smith gets 8 on a draw play and we let the clock run out.
2nd half we looked much better
1st drive we drive down the field and KJ hits every pass, then punches it in himself.
2nd drive. Pick up 10 on the slant to burks. Rice cramps up. KJ rolls over a Rice defender for the 1st down. Rocket gets 2 nice runs and then Rice cramps up again. Nice throw to Kern for a first down. Rocket for another 10 yards. Rocket gets stuffed up a couple times, Smith cant convert for the first down. We settle for the field goal.
3rd drive False start on Myron Cunningham puts us behind the chains. Smith gets stuffed up the left side. KJ over throws Warren. On 3rd down KJ overthrows Thompson while getting hit, Draws a PI call. Smith punches it in from the 2.
4th drive. Great blitz by Rice. KJ has to eat a sack. Warren drops a slant. Ketron makes a nice catch and I thought it was a pretty good throw after looking at it again. KJ saw a safety spying the route and threw it where Ketron had to sit on it. either way we have to punt.
5th Drive
KJ breaks one for 68 on a speed option. Ketron makes a good block, but his hand are too wide not to call that one. It was a hold IMO. Smith picks up 5 on a zone run. Nice split zone Play action to Burks coupled with a ghost late hit, we have it inside the 10. KJ throws a strike to Morris in the corner for the TD.
6th drive was a steady dose of dom Johnson (looked very slimmed up)and he punches it in for the cover.
Defense
As advertised, I think this unit can be special. Thought Parker played well in place of Grant. Catalon is an all america talent. Bumper had a hell of a game.
Special Teams
It was refreshing to watch us kick it out of the back of the end zone. The fumble on the opening kick was mind numbing. The blocked punt was super concerning. I thought Cam Little for sure looked the part of a 5* kicker.
Overall thoughts
The first half was sloppy and it wasn't all KJs fault. Everyone was out of sync. I think Briles called a good conservative game. I think when you watch the game back a few times you will see it wasn't as bad as it looked live. Rice will be a pretty decent team. I was super surprised they came out and ran 0 coverage most of the game and I'm sure there's no way Kendal expected to see 0 coverage and heavy blitzing. Great game planning on the part of Rice to try and rattle KJ early. Defense for the hogs was impressive to me. Gotta eliminate the targeting penalties. I think it is a terrible rule, but it's the rule, we can't do that. On to Texas!!! I'll try and get my breakdown out for them tomorrow sometime.
