HawgBeat - Thoughts from Arkansas' loss against Mississippi State
HawgBeat provides notes, thoughts, observations, takeaways and more from Arkansas' loss to Mississippi State.
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This offense is not good
Arkansas' third-year starting quarterback KJ Jefferson and the offense just continues to seemingly take a step back each week.In two seasons as the starter under former offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, Jefferson was very prolific in all aspects of the game. This season under first-year offensive coordinator Dan Enos, Jefferson has rarely looked liked the guy we saw the previous two years.
I want to be clear, I don't think this is as much of a KJ Jefferson issue as it is maybe a scheme issue. But Jefferson is also missing reads, making questionable throws and just not having any explosive plays like he used to. I have no doubt that he's frustrated because he's trying his best to put the team on his shoulders, but there is only so much he can do.
Jefferson completed 19-of-31 passes for just 97 passing yards and one interception while adding 38 rushing yards on 16 attempts.
"Maybe he just had a bad day because he had a good week of practice," head coach Sam Pittman said. "Again, I don't believe there's any type of injury there. I would have known about that. Maybe weeks of getting hit in the pocket have rattled him. I don't know. I don't think it's an injury."
The offensive line continued to get beat over and over on Saturday, this time against one of the SEC's worst defensive fronts. Even if the receivers were open, Jefferson wasn't finding them. When he did, it was on short screen passes and nothing more than 10 yards downfield. What happened to Jefferson throwing a really nice deep ball?
"We were just trying to call plays that could get 4 or 5 yards and have some success," Pittman said. "We missed one down the field that was called, basically a screen and go, that we had a guy open. We just didn't see it, you know. I don't think so. Guys, we're struggling so much on offense that you know and I know, we're grabbing over here, grabbing over here -- trying to find something that will work."
Arkansas punted on four of its six drives in the first half. Another drive resulted in a field goal after the Hogs gained just 29 yards on six plays following an interception that set them up in Bulldog territory. The sixth drive resulted in the Razorbacks running the clock out to end the half despite taking over with 2:12 to play and three timeouts.
"We've done that several times before," Pittman said. "A lot of people do. They try to run it on first play to see if they can get some kind of momentum going, especially if the other team has their timeouts and things like that. Where we were, it's 7-3 and we hadn't really shown we were going to go 85 yards, but you never know.
"I just didn't want to give up the sack fumble, to be perfectly honest with you, during that time. Once we got down in the 25 seconds, 22 seconds, I said that's enough. I didn't want to give them the ball back down there."
A majority of the blame falls on offensive coordinator Dan Enos, who has made his group take a big step back from the numbers it put up under his predecessor (Kendal Briles).
"We've got a lot of decisions to make," Pittman said. "We owe it to our team. We owe it to the fans. We'll figure that part of it out. My biggest thing to be honest with you... The defense has continued to improve and my biggest concern is about the kids and the entire team.
"We asked them at half we said 'Hey, if you'll hold them... If you'll shut them out, I think we'll win.' I thought we could get down there and score enough points to win. We just weren't able to do it. Defense is improving. We have a lot of talent on offense. We ought to be playing better than what we are. That's me. I've got to figure that out."
It's very clear that hiring Enos away from Maryland in the offseason was a bad decision for Pittman. While I don't necessarily blame him for that decision, he does have a big one to make now with Enos' future seemingly up in the air after Pittman did not deny the possibility of in-season staff changes.
"I don’t really want to answer that," Pittman said when asked if he would make an in-season staff change.
Defense continues to strain
You have to feel for the Arkansas defensive group, led by first-year defensive coordinator Travis Williams. Although Mississippi State was without starting quarterback Will Rogers, the defense did make a stop on all but on of the Bulldogs' offensive drives.
On the second play of the game, safety Alfahiym Walcott intercepted Wright to give the Hogs the ball in their own territory, but the offense could only muster up a field goal.
After forcing back-to-back punts, the defense did bend just enough for the Bulldogs to punch in a touchdown during the second quarter, which was literally enough to win the game.
Arkansas' defense held the Bulldogs to 205 total yards of offense and 4.3 yards per play. Led by backup quarterback Mike Wright, Mississippi State was just 2-of-11 on third downs against the Hogs.
"I thought the defense had a great game today," linebacker Chris Paul Jr. said. "Mike Wright, he’s a great player, fast on his feet. He showed us his speed today. Even though I felt like we played good, we’ve still got things that we need to fix as a defense or as a whole. We’re going to get to work on that next week."
On top of the early interception, Walcott nearly had a scoop-and-score in the fourth quarter that would've given Arkansas the lead. Unfortunately for him, the Bulldogs had a false start before the play and the touchdown didn't count.
"I saw Nico [Davillier] missed it, so I was like, ‘It’s still on the ground. OK, we’ve got to get it,'" Walcott said. "Then I saw Brad [Spence] miss it. I said, ‘Oh, shoot, this is me. We’re fixing to win.’ That’s what I was thinking. Then I saw the penalty. I was like, ‘Damn. It’s all right. The offense has got us.’ That’s all."
Arkansas had one pass breakups, three quarterback hurries, one sack, one interception and one forced fumble against the Bulldogs. The Razorbacks forced eight punts on the afternoon.
"Everything’s frustrating," Pittman said. "Hell, you’re frustrated. You should be. Everybody’s frustrated. There’s one head coach and I’ve got to figure out how to get it done. And I’m obviously not doing a good enough job."
The RB situation
Let's just all assume that Rocket Sanders isn't going to play anytime soon. The knee injury is probably bothering him more than even he initially thought.
With Sanders out, the Hogs are going primarily with Rashod Dubinion and AJ Green in the backfield. In his sophomore season, Dubinion is averaging 3.3 yards per carry, and he rushed 14 times for 47 yards on Saturday.
As a junior, Green is averaging 6.0 yards per carry this season. He ran the ball four times for 13 yards against Mississippi State.
"I think we did hand it off and run it a little better today that what we had," Pittman said. "When you get a four-yard run, I’m not positive that’s a celebration, but it has become that way. So you’re asking me how that’s become that way, I really… I don’t not want to answer it, but I don’t know that I have the perfect answer for it either."
Really none of the running backs have shown they can pass protect very well, and Dominique Johnson was in the game for most of the final drive because of that. One play in particular resulted in Jefferson dumping it off to Johnson, who was tackled in bound to tick way too much time off the clock on the final drive.
It wasn't long ago that we were talking about this running back room as one of the best in the country. Now it's not a stretch to start calling for freshman Isaiah Augustave to get some touches.
Dubinion hasn't been able to pass protect well, and even though he had a few good runs Saturday, he's been as boring as it gets. Green has provided a spark at times, but his lack of touches is head-scratching.
Final stats
