Inside Arkansas identified ‘3 Musts’ for the Razorbacks in Stillwater, and the results were a mixed bag in what was ultimately a 39-31 double-overtime loss at Oklahoma State.
After a dominant first half, the Hogs fell back into old habits as mistakes, missed assignments and special teams snafus told the story in yet another maddening one-score loss for Sam Pittman.
Nonetheless, here is how Arkansas fared in the three key areas laid out pregame in Saturday’s setback at Boone Pickens Stadium:
1.) Arkansas MUST Have The Cleaner Quarterback
When I wrote about this earlier in the week, the thought behind it was the keyword “cleaner” meaning two things:
- A cleaner jersey at the end of the game
- A cleaner game in the mistake department
Despite the end result, it was clear walking out of Boone Pickens Stadium that Taylen Green is a superior quarterback to Alan Bowman. But that unfortunately does not tell the entire story.
Green is naturally more subject to staining his jersey with his dual-threat capabilities, but he was still pressured 16 times, hurried 8, hit 6 and sacked 3 times on the afternoon. The most consequential of which was when he was popped during his throwing motion, resulting in a pick-six that represented Oklahoma State’s only points of the first half.
Bowman, meanwhile, went virtually untouched the entire game. Some of that has to do with OSU’s quick-passing game, but he was VERY comfortable in the pocket during the Cowboys’ rally and was only hurried twice, hit once and not sacked a single time.
Both quarterbacks threw a ton. Neither were particularly accurate (Green: 26/45 | Bowman: 27/48). Bowman did throw an interception himself, but it did not turn into six points as a result.
2.) Arkansas MUST Tighten Up Tackling In Stillwater
For the most part, Arkansas showed improvement in the tackling department from Week 1 to Week 2.
Against far better competition, Arkansas dropped its missed tackles from 11 to 8 and improved its PFF tackling grade from 44.3 to 72.8.
Oklahoma State running back Ollie Gordon led the country in Week 1 with 13 missed tackles forced. He was only credited with ONE broken tackle against the Razorbacks.
Starting cornerback Jaheim Singletary was the only Arkansas defender tagged with multiple missed tackles — he had two — and six of the eight total came from the secondary.
3.) Arkansas MUST Establish Itself In The Trenches
I’m open to this being a personal overreaction and getting proven wrong in the coming weeks, but I’d be lying to say I haven’t seen a few red flags waving in the trenches for the Razorbacks.
Let’s start with the offensive line. Yes, Arkansas piled up 648 yards of offense, including 232 on the ground. The O-Line gets its share of credit for that.
However, the amount of times Taylen Green was under fire is alarming coming from Oklahoma State when considering the size, speed, physicality and talent on the horizon in the SEC.
Also, if Green weren’t a cheat code of an athlete, those 16 pressures would have turned into more than the three sacks ultimately allowed (plus the one hit that resulted in a pick-six). Double-digit TFL’s allowed is probably not ideal, either.
It was a rough day at the office for the right side of Arkansas’ offensive line, particularly in the pass-blocking department, and getting better and more consistent snaps at center from Addison Nichols is critical moving forward.
As for the defensive line, kudos right out of the gates for bottling up Ollie Gordon to the tune of 2.9 yards per carry. Job well done.
But… only one TFL for the entire unit courtesy of Anton Juncaj? Zero sacks? Not even a quarterback hurry recorded in the official stats?
Cam Ball looked great, which is nice to see, but star defensive end Landon Jackson finished with just a pair of tackles in more than 70 snaps played?
Speaking of snaps, depth IS a concern on the defensive front for Arkansas, and it is amplified now by Mike Gundy mentioning Oklahoma State’s conditioning as a key factor in its win.
Juncaj and Keivie Rose are currently the only two defensive linemen Arkansas is showing confidence in rotating in, so it stands to reason that fatigue could have played a factor on that side of the ball late in the game.