A look at Arkansas' defensive struggles + what Pittman said about them and possible changes...
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Just a third of the way into the season, Barry Odom appeared to be a frontrunner for the Broyles Award because of how quickly he had turned around Arkansas’ defense.
Two weeks later, though, the Razorbacks are searching for answers on that side of the ball. In back-to-back losses at Georgia and Ole Miss, they have allowed 89 points on 956 total yards - including 597 on the ground.
The Bulldogs and Rebels gashed Arkansas’ three-man front to the tune of 5.7 yards per carry and eight rushing touchdowns. That has resulted in the Razorbacks plummeting from 11th to 66th nationally in scoring defense.
They’ve also fallen from 12th to 39th in total defense (337.5 yards/game) and from ninth to 40th in yards allowed per play (5.10).
“There will be some corrections and changes and different things of that nature and what our schematics could be, who's playing,” head coach Sam Pittman said Monday. “Certainly, there were a lot of problems we have to get fixed.”
Among those problems the last time out against Ole Miss was that Arkansas struggled to set the edge. When they adjusted to fix that issue, the Razorbacks had multiple busted coverages.
While previous quarterbacks like Texas’ Hudson Card, Georgia Southern’s Justin Tomlin and Texas A&M’s Zach Calzada missed open receivers downfield, Heisman Trophy candidate Matt Corral did not. In fact, Pittman said he picked apart the defense like it was 7-on-7 or routes on air.
The result was the Rebels connecting on 4 of 8 passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield. Coming into the game, opponents had been just 2 of 18 on such throws against the Razorbacks.
“When they started gashing us in the run game…in the first half, I thought they blocked so well on the perimeter,” Pittman said. “We were trying to get our corners and our safeties involved in the run game and they must have seen it and started running by us.”
When the Rebels weren’t airing it out, they pounded the rock for 324 yards and five touchdowns on 49 carries. It was the most rushing yards they’ve allowed in the Pittman/Odom era.
Even without preseason All-SEC pick Jerrion Ealy, Ole Miss nearly had three 100-yard rushers. Running backs Henry Parrish Jr. and Snoop Conner finished with 111 and 110 yards, respectively, while the Razorbacks also couldn’t get Corral on the ground, as he ran for 94 yards.
Pittman described the defensive performance as “by far our poorest day tackling” and the Pro Football Focus data backs that up. According to PFF, the Razorbacks had 17 missed tackles, with team captains Jalen Catalon and Grant Morgan leading the way with four apiece.
Veterans Greg Brooks Jr. and Hayden Henry each had three missed tackles, while Bumper Pool and Joe Foucha had two and one, respectively.
“We’ve got to figure it out, but really, it’s a lot of people,” Pittman said. “It’s not just one or two guys. We’re banging off of legs, not wrapping up well and getting guys on the ground. We’ll adjust it after we look at film and see what the heck is going on and why we’re not tackling well.”
This isn’t a new problem for the Razorbacks, either. They earned a 54.0 tackling grade from PFF for their performance against Ole Miss - their third straight sub-60 mark. For the season, Arkansas’ 58.7 tackling grade ranks 97th nationally and 11th in the SEC.
Asked about those struggles in the postgame interview, Henry said it was hard to point to one particular reason, but admitted it boiled down to the team not wrapping up well.
“We’re letting too many 2-3 yard runs turn into 6-yard runs, and I can’t necessarily put my finger directly on what the problem is, but I would assume we’re not wrapping up and not getting guys on the ground,” Henry said. “We make tackles, make contact with ball carriers, but we’re not pushing people back. People are dragging us for 2-3 yards and putting us in a bad position behind the chains and things like that.”
On top of that, the Razorbacks haven’t forced very many turnovers in recent weeks. They actually have just one - Montaric Brown’s key interception against Texas A&M - in their last four games, which Pittman said is a concern.
“We’ve got to get back to taking the ball away,” Henry said. “It’s something that we were really good at last year. This year we were good at it a little bit, and now we’re on quite a dry streak. We’ve got to start creating some big plays and getting the ball back to our offense.”
As for how they’ll go about fixing those problems, Pittman said the Razorbacks won’t be scaling back practice - which is common as teams get into the second half of the season - and will instead use their full allotted time on the field to make corrections.
“We're going to have full-time practices,” Pittman said. “We're not going to cut time even though we're in Week 7. We just can't afford to. We have to get better on both sides of the ball, but the glaring deal obviously everyone knows was on the defensive side of the ball.”
Pittman hinted at possible schematic changes, which hits on a hot-button topic for fans after what Georgia and Ole Miss did to Arkansas’ three-man front.
One of the top offseason storylines was the Razorbacks’ decision to add three defensive linemen from the transfer portal and their ability to play multiple fronts. However, they’ve primarily used the four-man front only against Rice and Georgia Southern.
It’s unclear if Arkansas plans to switch to that defense against Auburn and its talented rushing attack that ranks fourth nationally in yards per carry (6.1), but Pittman said it’s something he’s discussed with Odom and that they have enough depth to do so.
“That’s some things obviously that coach (Odom) and I have talked about,” Pittman said. “I’m not going to sit here and say what we’re going to do and what we’re not going to do, but…we do have enough D-linemen, we feel like, that we could rotate in a four-man line.”
Kickoff against the Tigers is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT Saturday and the game will be televised on CBS.
HawgBeat - What's wrong with Arkansas' defense?
HawgBeat takes a look at Arkansas' defensive struggles and what Sam Pittman said about them.
arkansas.rivals.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Just a third of the way into the season, Barry Odom appeared to be a frontrunner for the Broyles Award because of how quickly he had turned around Arkansas’ defense.
Two weeks later, though, the Razorbacks are searching for answers on that side of the ball. In back-to-back losses at Georgia and Ole Miss, they have allowed 89 points on 956 total yards - including 597 on the ground.
The Bulldogs and Rebels gashed Arkansas’ three-man front to the tune of 5.7 yards per carry and eight rushing touchdowns. That has resulted in the Razorbacks plummeting from 11th to 66th nationally in scoring defense.
They’ve also fallen from 12th to 39th in total defense (337.5 yards/game) and from ninth to 40th in yards allowed per play (5.10).
“There will be some corrections and changes and different things of that nature and what our schematics could be, who's playing,” head coach Sam Pittman said Monday. “Certainly, there were a lot of problems we have to get fixed.”
Among those problems the last time out against Ole Miss was that Arkansas struggled to set the edge. When they adjusted to fix that issue, the Razorbacks had multiple busted coverages.
While previous quarterbacks like Texas’ Hudson Card, Georgia Southern’s Justin Tomlin and Texas A&M’s Zach Calzada missed open receivers downfield, Heisman Trophy candidate Matt Corral did not. In fact, Pittman said he picked apart the defense like it was 7-on-7 or routes on air.
The result was the Rebels connecting on 4 of 8 passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield. Coming into the game, opponents had been just 2 of 18 on such throws against the Razorbacks.
“When they started gashing us in the run game…in the first half, I thought they blocked so well on the perimeter,” Pittman said. “We were trying to get our corners and our safeties involved in the run game and they must have seen it and started running by us.”
When the Rebels weren’t airing it out, they pounded the rock for 324 yards and five touchdowns on 49 carries. It was the most rushing yards they’ve allowed in the Pittman/Odom era.
Even without preseason All-SEC pick Jerrion Ealy, Ole Miss nearly had three 100-yard rushers. Running backs Henry Parrish Jr. and Snoop Conner finished with 111 and 110 yards, respectively, while the Razorbacks also couldn’t get Corral on the ground, as he ran for 94 yards.
Pittman described the defensive performance as “by far our poorest day tackling” and the Pro Football Focus data backs that up. According to PFF, the Razorbacks had 17 missed tackles, with team captains Jalen Catalon and Grant Morgan leading the way with four apiece.
Veterans Greg Brooks Jr. and Hayden Henry each had three missed tackles, while Bumper Pool and Joe Foucha had two and one, respectively.
“We’ve got to figure it out, but really, it’s a lot of people,” Pittman said. “It’s not just one or two guys. We’re banging off of legs, not wrapping up well and getting guys on the ground. We’ll adjust it after we look at film and see what the heck is going on and why we’re not tackling well.”
This isn’t a new problem for the Razorbacks, either. They earned a 54.0 tackling grade from PFF for their performance against Ole Miss - their third straight sub-60 mark. For the season, Arkansas’ 58.7 tackling grade ranks 97th nationally and 11th in the SEC.
Asked about those struggles in the postgame interview, Henry said it was hard to point to one particular reason, but admitted it boiled down to the team not wrapping up well.
“We’re letting too many 2-3 yard runs turn into 6-yard runs, and I can’t necessarily put my finger directly on what the problem is, but I would assume we’re not wrapping up and not getting guys on the ground,” Henry said. “We make tackles, make contact with ball carriers, but we’re not pushing people back. People are dragging us for 2-3 yards and putting us in a bad position behind the chains and things like that.”
On top of that, the Razorbacks haven’t forced very many turnovers in recent weeks. They actually have just one - Montaric Brown’s key interception against Texas A&M - in their last four games, which Pittman said is a concern.
“We’ve got to get back to taking the ball away,” Henry said. “It’s something that we were really good at last year. This year we were good at it a little bit, and now we’re on quite a dry streak. We’ve got to start creating some big plays and getting the ball back to our offense.”
As for how they’ll go about fixing those problems, Pittman said the Razorbacks won’t be scaling back practice - which is common as teams get into the second half of the season - and will instead use their full allotted time on the field to make corrections.
“We're going to have full-time practices,” Pittman said. “We're not going to cut time even though we're in Week 7. We just can't afford to. We have to get better on both sides of the ball, but the glaring deal obviously everyone knows was on the defensive side of the ball.”
Pittman hinted at possible schematic changes, which hits on a hot-button topic for fans after what Georgia and Ole Miss did to Arkansas’ three-man front.
One of the top offseason storylines was the Razorbacks’ decision to add three defensive linemen from the transfer portal and their ability to play multiple fronts. However, they’ve primarily used the four-man front only against Rice and Georgia Southern.
It’s unclear if Arkansas plans to switch to that defense against Auburn and its talented rushing attack that ranks fourth nationally in yards per carry (6.1), but Pittman said it’s something he’s discussed with Odom and that they have enough depth to do so.
“That’s some things obviously that coach (Odom) and I have talked about,” Pittman said. “I’m not going to sit here and say what we’re going to do and what we’re not going to do, but…we do have enough D-linemen, we feel like, that we could rotate in a four-man line.”
Kickoff against the Tigers is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT Saturday and the game will be televised on CBS.
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