20/20 Hindsight: Alabama vs Arkansas
by kleph on Sep 27, 2009 9:43 AM CDT
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PrintIn the wake of the Tebocalypse and Upsetalooza, it might surprise the college football world to learn that Alabama had a convincing win over Arkansas yesterday. But a few folks actually noticed what happened in T-Town yesterday afternoon and that Greg McElroy is quietly having a dominating year, although you have to fight through to chaff to the nether corners of most sports websites to find the stories.
Andy Staples | Sports Illustrated
Sorry, national television audience. Alabama refused to get caught in the rise-and-fall cycle that consumed Ole Miss, Cal and Miami this week. Alabama is the football equivalent of Honda, cranking out a reliable, dependable, un-sexy product that will roll for 300,000 miles as long as coach Nick Saban keeps changing the oil.
Chris Bahn | Arkansas Sports 360
It was obvious in the post-game press conference that Arkansas representatives felt obligated to give Alabama its due, but the Razorbacks felt like they let one slip away. Even though the Crimson Tide held advantages in every statistical category, it sure seemed like most of the damage done to Arkansas was the result of friendly fire.
Year 2 | Team Speed Kills
I guess we could say we knew that, but it all was on display as Alabama really controlled its game with Arkansas from beginning to end. For all the love showered on Ryan Mallett, who appears to be Gary Danielson's new secondary crush (behind Tebow, his primary) now that Matthew Stafford is in the NFL, Greg McElroy was by far the best quarterback in the game.
Randy Kennedy | Birmingham News
If the Crimson Tide isn’t the most impressive team in the country through the first third of the season, then who is? Or, more to the point, what is Nick Saban’s third Alabama team missing that would otherwise make it among the legitimate national championship favorites? ... But the Crimson Tide is the most serious challenger to the Gators’ throne at this point. That’s because Alabama is substantially better in almost every area from a year ago.
Aaron Suttles | Tide Sports
It was a popularly-held assumption that Arkansas’ offense was so explosive that it would be almost impossible for the Alabama defense, ranked No. 3 nationally in total defense coming into its SEC-opener, to stop the Razorback passing attack for an entire 60 minutes....
Think again.
Chris Low | ESPN
The big difference between this offense and the one last season is how much more diverse Alabama is and how many more players it's involving in the offense. Sophomore receiver Marquis Maze said [Greg] McElroy made it known this offseason that he was going to spread the ball around, which has taken the chemistry on this team to a different level.
Cecil Hurt | Tuscaloosa News
[Greg] McElroy’s strong second half, combined with the Crimson Tide’s best defensive effort of the young season, overwhelmed an Arkansas team that had been among the nation’s offensive leaders. Alabama harassed strong-armed Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett all day, sacking him three times and hurrying him or disrupting his rhythm on at least a dozen more occasions.
Ivory Tower | Red Cup Rebellion
Alabama is the number one team in the country. Considering the Tide's body of work - now that everyone has a substantial amount of it - none of the top teams in the country can boast such convincing resumes. The season-opening win in Atlanta looks better and better every day. And the difference between Arkansas' offense against Georgia and against Alabama is almost unbelievable.
Stephen Expat | Arkansas Expats
I guess it's no egregious sin to get your head handed to you by the No. 3 team in the country, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch. Today brought back extremely unpleasant memories of last September, when the Hogs got their asses thoroughly kicked by Alabama, Texas and Florida.
Harry King | NWA Online
Offensive maestro Bobby Petrino was short-handed against defensive wizard Nick Saban on Saturday. Meticulous preparation of talented skill players and brilliant schemes are not enough against a superb defense.
Alex Abrams | Razorback Central
Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino wasted no time accepting the blame for a lopsided loss that seemed to be a total team effort. As odd as it sounded, Petrino admitted it was his fault for not getting his players to believe they could knock off third-ranked Alabama. But everyone deserves a share of the blame for Saturday’s 35-7 loss that saw Arkansas’ high-powered offense stall and its shaky defense give up too many long touchdowns.
Matt Hayes | The Sporting News
How fitting that in this gotta-claim-it, gotta-name-it weekly BCS frenzy, one team now clearly stands alone among all the uncertainty. Not defending national champion Florida. Not Texas or Oklahoma or any other Big 12 wannabe. Not the latest flash from the Pac-10 or, for the love of God, the ACC. It's Alabama. And frankly, it's not that close.
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no worries...
but please post links to any other interesting articles you might find in the comments and i’ll add them to the list above.
Thanks
For putting this all together. Chris Bahn is ridiculous. I don’t like to think of myself as a homer, but he needs to give the #3 ranked team in the nation a little credit. He makes it sound as if confidence and some mistakes were all that kept Arkansas from winning the game. They didn’t lose 35-31 pal, they got blown out 35-7. A good team on the other sideline had something to do with that.
I agree.
KISS OUR RING DICKFACE!!
Offense sells tickets. Defense wins games. - Paul W. "Bear" Bryant
by TheRedTideConsumes on Sep 27, 2009 10:02 AM CDT up reply actions 1 recs
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Alabama out gained Arkansas by 171 yards. Arkansas was lucky to be within two scores at the half. On top of that Alabama made a bunch of mistakes as well. We had two huge Arenas returns called back by needless block in the backs. We had at least four dropped passes in the first half, including one that if Maze catches in stride was surely another touchdown.
I always like the trick where someone says, not to take anything away from the other team, and then immediately goes ahead and takes away from the other team. I thought at first it was a blog, not a somewhat legitimate newspaper.
At the game
It was raining cats and dogs fifteen minutes before kickoff. The field was very wet, as I’m sure the balls were. you didn’t see those dropped passes into the second half.
Also, when I’m at the game I’m pretty keen on catching penalties as they happened. The first return called back by the block in the back was legit. The second was bullshit. As OTS stated, Arky is a dirty team and I hope they go to hell. I can tell you three examples of Reamer almost getting to mallett and their oline pushing him down from behind and holding him there. Further, they were clipping and holding our guys like you wouldn’t believe. They were terrible, and its why I wasn’t sad to see their OT get hurt cause he was one of the worse and tried to take out Dareus’s knee.
It is important to find someone who allows you to fulfill your dreams. It is luck if that person finds you, too - Isaiah Zagar
by BamaReturns07 on Sep 27, 2009 11:33 AM CDT up reply actions
"Alabama is the football equivalent of Honda...will roll for 300,000 miles as long as coach Nick Saban keeps changing the oil."
I hate stupid people, any vehicle can go 300k+ with proper maintenance.
I felt like
The kicking team and secondary made great strides in this game. I think we always knew GMAC was the man, I’m glad to see his stock improving. Great game overall with lots of big plays and even though the running game was slow 3/4 of the game…hell they had 8 in the box so i would say it did well considering.
"There's a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success." PBB
by Pachyderm Pride on Sep 27, 2009 10:37 AM CDT reply actions
oh and another link:
The ‘09 campaign marks the 56th time ‘Bama has begun a season by winning its first three games.
UA is 467-110-12 (.803 winning percentage) in those years.
When the Tide starts 3-0, it is 37-16-2 (.691 win pct) in Week 4. (Incidentally and not-so-neatly, UA’s overall Week 4 record since 2000 is 3-5 (2-3 after winning the first three.))
http://www.3sib.com/2009/09/23/when-alabama-starts-3-0/#more-12238 Just in case i didn’t link it correctly..
"There's a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success." PBB
by Pachyderm Pride on Sep 27, 2009 10:59 AM CDT reply actions
that's their post from wednesday. not post-game
but they did dig up this delusional-to-the-point-of-spectacular story that’s worth a hearty guffaw or two.
arkansas expats has their media roundup posted with lots of the same material highlighted. they also have a link to razorbloggers collection of story links that has an emphasis on arkansas-based reports.
ya
I just realized that….oops.
"There's a lot of blood, sweat and guts between dreams and success." PBB
by Pachyderm Pride on Sep 27, 2009 11:18 AM CDT reply actions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BsE0QNxLYY
"The first person I would like to thank is the good Lord, for giving me the ability to play the game of football. Because without the ability to play the game I would have been at Auburn." - Marty Lyons
by crimsonpride19 on Sep 27, 2009 11:39 AM CDT reply actions
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