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FAYETTEVILLE — For about 2.5 quarters Saturday, Arkansas had its sights set on a monumental upset of No. 4 Georgia.
The Razorbacks ran out of gas, though, and gave up 32 unanswered points, turning their 10-5 lead into a 37-10 loss. The 27-point margin is the third-worst for a season-opening loss in school history.
Despite the final result, there were several aspects of the game head coach Sam Pittman said he felt could be fixed quickly. Here’s a look at what his team will be focusing on this week before Saturday’s game at No. 16 Mississippi State…
Special Teams
The first thing out of Pittman’s mouth when discussing areas for improvement was that Arkansas needed to be “a lot better on special teams.”
He said Georgia dominated that phase of the game. It didn’t require film review to come away with that assessment, as HawgBeat pointed out just hours after it was over.
Upon rewatching it, though, Pittman said the blocked punt happened because of a mistake on something “very simple” with the protection in the shield. It will be addressed in practice.
The Bulldogs also had three punt returns of at least 15 yards and two kickoff returns of at least 40 yards. While a line drive kick by Vito Calvaruso contributed to one of those, it sounds like they were more of an issue with the coverage unit, which struggled to shed blocks.
“Georgia's so big and physical on that, they dominated,” Pittman said. “We couldn't get off of them on the punt team and we couldn't get off of them on their kickoff return, and it hurt us.”
Pittman admitted he wished he used a timeout before the delay of game penalty on the long field goal attempt, but it worked out because A.J. Reed missed the kick and Georgia ended up having to cover an extra 17 yards after a punt with just a minute left in the half.
The Bulldogs got into field goal range on that drive and actually missed the kick on which Pittman used his final timeout. Pittman admitted he wouldn’t have used the second timeout had he known that would happen, but that was clear only in hindsight.
After the lackluster performance, Pittman said he, special teams coordinator Scott Fountain and the players are aware that level of play wouldn’t cut it and he’s confident it’ll be better Saturday.
Offensive Misalignments
On several occasions during the loss, quarterback Feleipe Franks was busy getting his teammates lined up correctly. Pittman said there was “too much indecisiveness about where to line up.”
The first-year coach added there were several misalignments that required shifting a running back or tight end from one side or the other, or moving a wide receiver on or off the ball.
“We really didn't have that problem at practice, but we did the other night,” Pittman said. “The quarterback was getting everybody lined up instead of looking at the defense seeing how we can attack that, so that has to be a big thing for us this week.”
Wide Receiver Separation
Although he said he wants the offensive line to be more physical up front, Pittman admitted he didn’t expect them to have a ton of success against Georgia’s stout defensive line.
What he was more disappointed in after watching the film was the lack of separation his wide receivers got on routes.
“(Georgia) did a nice job of press covering on us,” Pittman said. “Feleipe was getting rid of the ball. We’ve got to get open. We’ve got to get separation. So that was one of the things that stood out.”
Asked specifically about Trey Knox’s lack of production - the sophomore had just one catch for three yards - Pittman said he needed to get more separation.
Defensive Rotation
Despite the Bulldogs scoring 37 points, arguably the most encouraging sign from the loss was how well the Razorbacks’ defense played.
A big reason it was in the game for as long as it was Saturday was Barry Odom’s unit completely shutting down Georgia’s offense. The defense did allow the Bulldogs to drive down the field and get into field goal range just before halftime, but held them to just 1 of 12 on third downs in the first half.
It started to unravel in the third quarter, though, and Pittman attributed to the defense getting worn down.
Upon further inspection, he may be on to something. Six of the 11 defensive starters played at least 73 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. Including special teams, each of those six were on the field for 87-plus total snaps: Jerry Jacobs (108), Montaric Brown (105), Jalen Catalon (100), Grant Morgan (96), Bumper Pool (91) and Greg Brooks Jr. (87).
“We need to play more players on defense,” Pittman said. “I think we got tired. We played a lot of snaps in the first half and about the same in the second half.”
Pittman added that he felt that led to some missed tackles in the second half, including on Georgia’s 6-yard touchdown run that put it up 34-10 early in the fourth quarter.
One thing that could help in this aspect is that the Razorbacks expect to get three key defensive players back this week.
