FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas defensive end Landon Jackson was blunt about what will happen to the Razorbacks in SEC games if they don’t make a lot of improvement before the conference opener at Auburn.
“Any team in the SEC is going to beat the hell out of us if we play like that,” Jackson said after Arkansas rallied to beat Alabama-Birmingham 37-27 on Saturday. “So we need to find a way to clean up those mistakes and play a lot more physical.
“We didn’t play our brand of football. We came out with a win, so that’s always good, but at the same time we’ve got a lot to clean up.”
Arkansas (2-1) was heavily favored to beat UAB (1-2), which lost 32-6 at Louisiana-Monroe the week before.
But UAB jumped ahead of Arkansas 17-3 in the first half.
“Obviously it’s not the start we wanted to have,” Razorbacks guard Josh Braun said. “We talk about starting fast. We weren’t able to do that.
“Credit UAB. They started fast. They came in and were executing when we didn’t execute.”
Arkansas tied it 20-20 at halftime on a 51-yard field goal by Kyle Ramsey with 1:03 left in the second quarter.
“Our mentality at halftime was to get back to our standard,” Braun said. “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is, what helmet is on the other sideline.
“We’re trying to live up to the Razorback standard. And that’s something we have to hold ourselves to every day. Whether it’s in practice, meetings, or just daily life.
“In the first half we weren’t able to hold up to that standard. I think we readjusted our mindset at halftime. Had a decent third quarter. Then we just have to keep pushing to live up to that standard every day.”
After Oklahoma State beat Arkansas 39-31 in double overtime in Stillwater, Okla., Coach Sam Pittman said several players were limited in practice, including five on defense who wore green non-contact jerseys.
“I was worried about our physicality and how we would fly to the football and all those things because during practice, with a lot of green out there that you can’t hit, it slows down,” Pittman said. “We were physically beat up from that game and still recovering from it honestly.”
Arkansas played better in the second half and safety TJ Metcalf clinched the victory with an interception of a Jacob Zeno pass with 1:07 left in the fourth quarter. Transfer quarterback Taylen Green put the Razorbacks ahead 37-27 with a 9-yard touchdown run on the previous drive.
Pittman said “it was loud” in the locker room when the Razorbacks regrouped at halftime.
“They were whipping our butt, so we needed to understand that we knew it and how we could fix it,” Pittman said. “It had a lot to do with tackling better. We didn’t tackle at all well in the first half.
“Just continuing to encourage in the passing game because we had guys open. It’s just we weren’t throwing and catching it. At that point, you just try to find a way to win.”
Arkansas drove 84 yards on its first possession of the second half and took a 27-20 lead on Ja’Quinden Jackson’s 16-yard touchdown run.
“UAB was really ready to play,” Pittman said on Arkansas’ postgame radio show. “They had a good game plan. Coach (Trent) Dilfer and his crew did a wonderful job.
“But we have to play harder, smarter. Obviously during practice we’re doing something we’ve got to get better at. I told the kids we’ve got to strain more. More urgency. We’ve got to have 11 players out there, not just 3 or 4, that are playing consistent football.
“We’ll work on it. We did win. That’s the good thing about it and we have the opportunity to play Auburn next week and I’m excited about that.”
Arkansas plays Saturday at Auburn (2-1), which beat New Mexico 45-19 with redshirt freshman quarterback Hank Brown, who made his first start, throwing four touchdown passes.
“I’m personally really excited,” Landon Jackson said. “That’s when we’re really going to know what we’ve got.
“I think we have a really good team. We didn’t play our best ball. We’ve just got to clean it up.
“I feel like we can go into Auburn and clean up our mistakes and we can have a really good outcome.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-15 20:05:00
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