The Game Thread for Alabama A&M v Arkansas

[Barton Fink]

I liked what saw from the QB and the WR's. The Oline didn't look very physical and the RB's were kind of hit and miss. It remains to seen how effective the offense will be against a SEC defense.

The defense looks like a Marvel project, no plot, mediocre cast and lack of direction. At least we have a kicker.

Pretty much the same for me. They did get more pressure against our Oline than I expected. WRs were the group of the day for me. Only drop was a tough catch from CJ. They ran well after the catch.

[BleedinRed]

We beat a rent a win as we are supposed to. That doesn't mean we are going to be 9-3. The sky fell in 2012 with spurts of promise in 2014, 2015, and 2021, which we end up over payjng for coaches like GVN and Bert to be mediocre at best after they go through the previous coach's recruits to say we are back.

Enjoy the win this week and next, because the rest of the year will be a gimmie.

Doesn't mean we are going 3-9 either.

Seems like I'm the only one enjoying the win today.

Maybe ASU will make everyone's dreams come true.    

[HogOfWar]

Doesn't mean we are going 3-9 either.

Seems like I'm the only one enjoying the win today.

Maybe ASU will make everyone's dreams come true.   

Never said 3-9. 4-8 is the worst 5-7 is the ceiling in my opinion and I didn't have ASU beating us. Didn't know Memphis was that bad, but Auburn looks more like a loss after last night.

[Pumpkin Escobar]

Pretty much the same for me. They did get more pressure against our Oline than I expected. WRs were the group of the day for me. Only drop was a tough catch from CJ. They ran well after the catch.

The WR's looked like the quick twitch and quick cutting type that Petrino prefers. My question is if the Oline will hold up against the pass rush of better teams.

[animal]

One thing that sticks out in that box score is I'm seeing a lot of solo tackles and not a lot of assists. That screams a lack of gang tackling and guys not coming to the football and/or that fucking out of position. Of course this wasn't exactly a team we got up for and still only gave up 7 points against a 7th year QB. 

Also I seriously doubt our defense was doing anything exotic...we were comfortable just getting out of there with the win and nobody got hurt.

Still pass rush was very meh, line backers were so bad out of position it made me question if they were even playing in the game. Our DBs were laying off bigly which is usually an indicator of not wanting to give up the big play (against a fucking HBCU?)

[egregious]

After seeing the WRs for both my teams, there must be a shit ton available in the portal each year.

[wmr]

Alabama-A&M looked really big on O-line, and I'll say they dominated the LOS the first two times they had the ball.  They also got tired pretty quickly and that showed later in the game.  #13 that big-ass TE is wasted potential.  In a bigtime program he could be an NFL prospect.  He might be retarded, though.

[FNG]

Not a lot of surprises in this game.

As expected, Bama Aggie went man and used run blitzes to stop the Hogs' ground game and Petrino made them pay through the air. TG is seeing the field much better and seems to have at least four targets that he is comfortable with so we shouldn't see the "Armstrong or scramble" attitude from last year. He is still pretty casual about ball security though. I think our O line is improved over last year and will continue to get better as they gel. What little I saw of Washington was encouraging; he appears to have that slash and cut ability that Alex Collins had.

On the other hand, our D line is paper thin and will hurt us throughout the season, particularly as the inevitable injury bug shows up. Backers are average but certainly not elite. Not sure about the secondary; they are big and appear to be better tacklers than last year's group but I'm having trouble understanding the "mental errors" that allowed receivers to stroll around unmolested downfield like they were part of a roadside litter crew.

Special teams look...well, special. Hill and Shanks are exciting returners and Bale is a reliable weapon. Kickers are always a wildcard but Starzyk may be the real deal. Ngo should be made co-captain with Bale.

As for the rest of the season, (barring injury) I think BMFP with a new-and-improved Green and a good receiving and running back corps will give us a puncher's chance of staying in most games.

Unfortunately, our Big 12 defense will mean that most games will end up being shootouts. 

[flash23]

We're not as bad as the opening defensive series looked, but we're not as good as 52-7 looks.

Astate gave up 24 points to SEMO, so scoring on them won't be a issue. It will definitely be closer than anyone wants it to be. I still stand by my statement that I wouldn't be surprised if they win, not because they're good or not because we're (that) bad, but they've been wanting this game for a really long time. Fortunately for us they have Butch Jones on the sideline, and fortunately for them we have Sam Pittman. Truly a battle of minds.

[vegashog]

zero turnovers and three penalties. that's not terrible for an opener regardless who you're playing.

[woodhog14]

Great first game win.  Lime the special teams and offense.  Defense settled in after the first drive. 

Lots of improvement will be made this week. 

Yep.

[woodhog14]

Do you always live your life with the most miserable sky is falling view?

We did what we were supposed to do today.  We have things to work on.  For fucks sake, enjoy the win and get excited about next weeks game. 

This.

Our fans, man.

[Sus-Scrofa]

Game reply just started on SEC Network

Bama Aggies about to make us look stupid on their first drive

[Feral]

One thing that sticks out in that box score is I'm seeing a lot of solo tackles and not a lot of assists. That screams a lack of gang tackling and guys not coming to the football and/or that fucking out of position. Of course this wasn't exactly a team we got up for and still only gave up 7 points against a 7th year QB.

Also I seriously doubt our defense was doing anything exotic...we were comfortable just getting out of there with the win and nobody got hurt.

Still pass rush was very meh, line backers were so bad out of position it made me question if they were even playing in the game. Our DBs were laying off bigly which is usually an indicator of not wanting to give up the big play (against a fucking HBCU?)

Not sure it showed up on the stat sheet but we had a lot of missed tackles, far too many to give me any level of comfort, and we allowed a ton of second chance yards that SEC ball carriers will make us pay for.

[Texzilla]

Alabama-A&M looked really big on O-line, and I'll say they dominated the LOS the first two times they had the ball.  They also got tired pretty quickly and that showed later in the game.  #13 that big-ass TE is wasted potential.  In a bigtime program he could be an NFL prospect.  He might be retarded, though.

Once the Great Shittening is complete, and college ball just devolves into hired guns working as marketing employees of a school, that TE is playing at genuine Bama.  Unless he's retarded.  Though that probably won't matter either if he can ball. 

[vegashog]

they had 69 yards rushing, went 1-12 on 3rd down. we tackled well enough. their qb started 5-5 and finished 1-10.

we no doubt looked confused on d for the first drive and a half but dominated them like we should have after that.

[Texzilla]

We're not as bad as the opening defensive series looked, but we're not as good as 52-7 looks.

Astate gave up 24 points to SEMO, so scoring on them won't be a issue. It will definitely be closer than anyone wants it to be. I still stand by my statement that I wouldn't be surprised if they win, not because they're good or not because we're (that) bad, but they've been wanting this game for a really long time. Fortunately for us they have Butch Jones on the sideline, and fortunately for them we have Sam Pittman. Truly a battle of minds.

Some games are considered 3D chess, others relegated to checkers.  Sam vs Butch.  Hmmm.  I think that's not even Pick up Sticks.  That's down to Guess Which Hand.

Zorak, ole Smoke would have a more complex gameplan. Z I'm not making fun of your dog. I love that dog and your comments about him. He's usually the only cheerful thing going over on the cry fest of the "better dog" thread. 

[animal]

Not sure it showed up on the stat sheet but we had a lot of missed tackles, far too many to give me any level of comfort, and we allowed a ton of second chance yards that SEC ball carriers will make us pay for.

Worse than that it wasn't like we were over pursuing trying knock everyone's dick in the dirt...we just didn't have anybody in position to make plays a lot of the time and when we did we were arm tackling (or lack thereof). This defense yesterday did not look good or even remotely talented at all. 

I think we can probably chalk some of it up to being too vanilla, some of it up to "they were so little/quick", some of it up to it being a new staff and not much prep tape on them, some of it on first game jitters etc. But we didn't piss excellence on defense all that much at all..it was just really meh.

[buff2.0]

A PPV channel of the offensive coaches in the booth while we were on defense would have been hilarious.

[wmr]

Almost forgot:  they did not play the gay-ass HDN speech about "only one Razorback" at the game.  Jon Williams did say that at one point along with a bunch of other dumb shit.

I'm not as annoyed by what he says as how incredibly fucking loud they have those mics tuned.  On top of that,  he and the pretty black Olympian girl scream at the tops of their lungs into them.  It is earsplitting.  I wore my Walker Razors to a couple games last year to avoid the hearing (and brain) damage.