The Nutt offensive balance was back, for a half

[Biggus Piggus]

First down plays

First quarter: 6 runs, 4 passes
Second quarter: 4 runs, 4 passes
Third quarter: 8 runs, 1 pass
Fourth quarter: 10 runs, 0 passes

Total: 28 runs, 9 passes, ratio 3.1:1

[Biggus Piggus]

Robert Johnson passing plays

A 1-10 A05   Robert Johnson flat pass incomplete to Peyton Hillis.
A 2-7  A25   Robert Johnson deep pass intercepted by Radon at the MSU42, Radon return
                   28 yards to the AR30, out-of-bounds (Stephen Parker), PENALTY AR holding
                   declined.
A 1-10 A40   Robert Johnson flat pass complete to Marc Winston for no gain to the
                   AR40 (D. Byrd).
A 1-10 M44   Robert Johnson rush quarterback scramble for 4 yards to the MSU40,
                   out-of-bounds (Sears).
A 3-8  M42   Robert Johnson flat pass complete to Dedrick Poole for 4 yards to the
                   MSU38 (Colbert).
A 4-4  M38   Robert Johnson out pass complete to C. Washington for 6 yards to the
                   MSU32, 1ST DOWN AR (Harris;D. Byrd).
A 1-10 A44   Robert Johnson flat pass complete to Marcus Monk for 4 yards to the AR48
                   (Colbert;Rone).
A 2-16 M40   Robert Johnson post pass complete to Marcus Monk for 21 yards to the
                   MSU19, 1ST DOWN AR (Colbert).
A 1-10 M19   Robert Johnson rush quarterback scramble for loss of 3 yards to the
                   MSU22, out-of-bounds (Harris).
A 2-13 M22   Robert Johnson throw away pass incomplete, QB hurry by D. Byrd.
A 3-13 M22   Robert Johnson pass incomplete to Peyton Hillis, QB hurry by Harmon.
A 1-10 M49   Robert Johnson pass complete to Dedrick Poole for loss of 2 yards to the
                   AR49 (Walsh).
A 2-12 A49   Robert Johnson middle pass complete to Dedrick Poole for 13 yards to the
                   MSU38, 1ST DOWN AR (Johnson).
A 1-10 M38   Robert Johnson deep pass incomplete to David Thompson.
A 2-8  M12   Robert Johnson flat pass complete to C. Washington for 7 yards to the
                   MSU5.
A 3-1  M05   Robert Johnson post pass complete to Marcus Monk for 5 yards to the
                   MSU0, 1ST DOWN AR, TOUCHDOWN, clock 00:02.
A 2-8  M28   Robert Johnson flat pass incomplete to Peyton Hillis (Lovely).
A 3-8  M28   Robert Johnson post pass incomplete to Marcus Monk (Lovely).
A 4-8  M28   Robert Johnson pass complete to Peyton Hillis for 3 yards to the MSU25.
A 2-8  A45   Robert Johnson flat pass incomplete to C. Washington (D. Byrd).
A 3-8  A45   Robert Johnson flat pass incomplete to Marcus Monk, QB hurry by Harmon.
A 3-4  M47   Robert Johnson post pass complete to Marcus Monk for 8 yards to the
                   MSU39, 1ST DOWN AR (Lovely).
A 1-10 M39   Robert Johnson deep pass incomplete to C. Washington, QB hurry by Rone.
A 3-9  M38   Robert Johnson post pass complete to Marcus Monk for 19 yards to the
                   MSU19, 1ST DOWN AR (Colbert;D. Byrd).

Six completions for first downs.
Five failed conversions on third or fourth down.
Three completions for double-digit yardage.

12-22, 88 yards, one TD, one INT

[Biggus Piggus]

MSU played for the pass whenever the Hogs ran spread formations on first down.  The first down pass plays above in the first half did not pay off very well, from a risk-reward perspective.  Not that they cost that much--turnovers ended our non-scoring drives, not punts--but the chart showed

3 completions in 4 attempts
2 net yards

2 QB scrambles
1 net yard

[Turnberry]

4 yds per attempt is flat out pathetic. 

He threw 8 flat passes. That is an indication that he's making horrible reads, there's no way he should of gone to the safety valve that much.  This is why I think he'll have a poor year -  mental mistakes.   Obviously, it's only 1 game, but that's what I anticipate.

[Biggus Piggus]

    Man Biggus, you 1nc again dig out some good stuff. But do you think knowing HDN WILL NOT Run the score up, or show up any team, didn't pass because he didn't want to be accused of being a "jerk" of a coach?

We scored 63 against New Mexico State in last year's opener.  No sensitivity about scoring.  We'd have scored that many this year if not for the turnovers.  We didn't score in the third quarter.  It was a game entering the fourth quarter.  Nobody gets accused of running up the score in a game they could have lost.

Or was it the inability to pass the ball down the field and he did not want to turn the ball over w/ more interceptions? I seem to remember only a few passes that went down filed, and the first 1 RJ didn't read the coverage right.

I heard some ex-coaches on the radio talking about how a coach has to avoid putting a new starter in position to make an early mistake.  The long bomb was HDN's call.  It looked as though Johnson threw it right to the defender, but it wasn't just a poor throw.  They expected a different coverage.  The INT stung Nutt hard, and it affected his calls the rest of the night.

I was surprised we couldn't get people open more often.  Chris Baker missed the game with an injury.  Maybe we missed him.  Cedric Logan, was he even on the field?

[Biggus Piggus]

4 yds per attempt is flat out pathetic.

He threw 8 flat passes. That is an indication that he's making horrible reads, there's no way he should of gone to the safety valve that much. This is why I think he'll have a poor year - mental mistakes. Obviously, it's only 1 game, but that's what I anticipate.

I'd like to know more of the real story about why Johnson threw those swings, flats and outs so often.  Very, very safe with very, very little reward.  The ball hums coming out of his hand, it just ain't going anywhere.

[Feralhog]

one point we keep missing. I've been a little critical of our passing game Saturday, but let's call a spade a spade. Most of us expected MO ST to load the box and test our passing game, but the opposite was true.    Had we been playing Bama or Tenn, and they lined up soft defensively like MO ST did all night, many here would be going bazerk for throwing the ball 25 times into a prevent defense.

       

[Biggus Piggus]

Feral, they didn't play seven deebees or anything.  They would have been nuts to play press man, with their corners against Monk and Washington.  As it was, they got good pressure on our passer quite a few times, without throwing wild fronts at us.  The run plays they had trouble stopping were out of base defense.  They handled the runs out of the spread better than they did in base defense against base offense or two tights.

[Feralhog]

I think their staff took a calculated risk. Ball knew the hogs would likely work on the passing game, they gambled toward that end and devised a game plan to defend the pass.   No, they didn't play dime, but their LB's sure spent most of the night dropping into coverage.  As for the pressure, they did have a small blitz package that was probably geared more toward stopping the run than pass.   

[Biggus Piggus]

Feral, do you recall seeing even one play-action pass play?  Do you think we'll see some this week?

[Feralhog]

Nope.  At least a big part of the 25 pass plays had more than one and two receivers in the routes.  It may have been for job security, but RJ chose the safe route most of the time.  I came away from the game Saturday having very few questions answered regarding our passing game.  I'm betting Vandy will challenge us to pass the ball and we'll learn more next week.   

[Biggus Piggus]

Feral, I'd sure like to watch the game closely again.  I had a great vantage point up in the East club + was trying to watch Johnson closely.  There's only so much I could see of course, but several times I felt like Johnson didn't look anywhere but the flat like it was called from the sideline.  Maybe his read was that cursory.

[Biggus Piggus]

Arkansas rushed the ball 51 times.  Of those, 49 apparently were called runs.  Two were QB scrambles.  Four rushing plays were inside the opponent's 5, or for <2 yards to make a first down.

In 45 other rushing plays, 10 plays were stuffed (2 or fewer yards, excluding goal line).  The only reason why so many were stuffed = we made it obvious we were going to run.  Several of those were the tailback's third consecutive carry.

The next step for this offense is to make it not so obvious when we are going to run.  Wake Forest averaged 5.4 yards per carry without its starting tailback against Vanderbilt.  We ought to do a little better than that.  Jay Cutler is a bigtime run-pass threat.  He will show whether our defense has made any progress over last season.

[Feralhog]

You and I saw the same thing, I didn't sit in my normal seats and maybe that had something to do with it, but I caught myself focusing on RJ on offense and our DE's on defense.  It just looked to me like RJ took the approach of not risking his starting job by forcing anything.  There was some nice plays for the taking across the middle, had he waited a beat or two.  I thought Mortensen did a better job staying patient, and the one pass over the middle where Monk fumbled is a good example.  RJ continually did just what you described.  He looked over the middle early then zeroed in on the flat.  At least that's what I saw. 

[Feralhog]

...... Jay Cutler is a bigtime run-pass threat. He will show whether our defense has made any progress over last season.

     Speaking of defense. I've been critical of the DE's but to be perfectly fair, SMS passing attack was quick hitting, utilizing a three step drop. We tried to counter with some press coverage to give our DE's time to get in, but they had some nice little picks that allowed the receiver to spring open early. Let's face it, SMS put together a neat little game plan and they staggered us in the 3rd qtr with a pretty good shot in the chops.

[Bacons Rebellion]

Thanks for the note on the lack of play action passes. That's one thing you can't often get  a handle on from radio. I don't often buy into the "let's not show the playbook" line, but it would make sense that we would plan to run our straight passing game (probably our weakness) instead of our play-action passing game (probably a strength).

It crossed my mind while listening that Johnson might have been dumping the ball to his third receiver too often because he was determined to not panic and prove he could go through all his reads. Or maybe some lack of confidence after the int when his downfield receiver wasn't wide open.

In the third quarter we seemed to say "Oh oh, we better quit piddling around and pound the ball over these guys or who knows what will happen."

Well, we'll find out more soon enough.

[CorningHog]

I don't know about the "theory" that RJ quickly dumped the ball in the flats after his "reads".  It looked like called plays to me with all the passes to Monk, Washington, Poole & Hillis in the flats and we ran very few "3" receiver sets where we were intentionally running a "pass" play.  At least that is how I remember it.  I would love to watch it on tape and see again, but from my view it looked as though mostly we were going with 3 step drop and throwing quickly to an area in a "safe zone".

He hit a good one to Winston once and the throws down field to Monk a couple of times for big gains was nice.

RJ has the arm and I think the aptitude and patience to see where the play develops.  We also have an OL and group of receivers that should do a lot of damage in the passing game.

It sure looked like we avoided showing very much in the way of any "screens" or crossing patterns and all the routes I was seeing a few weeks back in one Saturday scrimmage.  The play action will be very nicely added as teams load up on our running game.  BUT....we need to be able to run it successfully against stronger defenses. 

I expect you will see a much clearer view of the Arkansas offense this weekend.  The 2nd week usually is when you see a jump in execution and focus from the players.  PLUS...expect to see more of our offensive game plan for the rest of the year.  It will be Vanderbilt specific but you should see more passing like you want.

GO HOGS!

Oh, let me add, RJ's numbers should have been more like 17-22 180 yds instead of 12-22 for 88 yds.  Hillis, Monk, Washington dropped at least 5 passes between them that should have been caught with no problems.

[Biggus Piggus]

It sure looked like we avoided showing very much in the way of any "screens" or crossing patterns and all the routes I was seeing a few weeks back in one Saturday scrimmage.

Corning, if the Razorbacks hadn't recently had entire seasons in which they didn't show very much in the way of screens or crossing patterns (despite what they did in practice), I might gleefully jump to the conclusion that we were hiding everything from Vanderbilt.

Oh, let me add, RJ's numbers should have been more like 17-22 180 yds instead of 12-22 for 88 yds. Hillis, Monk, Washington dropped at least 5 passes between them that should have been caught with no problems.

Now, I'm getting tired of this one.  This number is inflating by the minute.  I saw one outright drop, and the rest were thrown too hard, too high and/or behind the receiver.

[Jim Harris]

It sure looked like we avoided showing very much in the way of any "screens" or crossing patterns and all the routes I was seeing a few weeks back in one Saturday scrimmage.

Corning, if the Razorbacks hadn't recently had entire seasons in which they didn't show very much in the way of screens or crossing patterns (despite what they did in practice), I might gleefully jump to the conclusion that we were hiding everything from Vanderbilt.

Oh, let me add, RJ's numbers should have been more like 17-22 180 yds instead of 12-22 for 88 yds. Hillis, Monk, Washington dropped at least 5 passes between them that should have been caught with no problems.

Now, I'm getting tired of this one. This number is inflating by the minute. I saw one outright drop, and the rest were thrown too hard, too high and/or behind the receiver.

C'mon Biggus, you know darn well Robert should have been 22 for 22 with a 1,000 yards and six TDs. It's Nutt fault and everyone else's fault that he wasn't.

[Biggus Piggus]

I missed that, the notion that those five so-called drops should have gone for an average of 20 yards apiece.  Wowee.

[Bacons Rebellion]

I don't know about the "theory" that RJ quickly dumped the ball in the flats after his "reads". It looked like called plays to me with all the passes to Monk, Washington, Poole & Hillis in the flats and we ran very few "3" receiver sets where we were intentionally running a "pass" play. At least that is how I remember it. I would love to watch it on tape and see again, but from my view it looked as though mostly we were going with 3 step drop and throwing quickly to an area in a "safe zone".

If that's my "Theory" your responding to, all I was going on was what the two guys from the Springfield radio station were saying. And Nutt said in some interview that he didn't wait long enough.

As I recall, though, called passes to the flat would fit previous years with new qbs. I know I got really tired of seeing that 1 yard hitch route over and over in 2000 when Hampton was qb. 20 yard pass; 1 yard gain.

[Biggus Piggus]

It crossed my mind while listening that Johnson might have been dumping the ball to his third receiver too often because he was determined to not panic and prove he could go through all his reads. Or maybe some lack of confidence after the int when his downfield receiver wasn't wide open.

He did not take long to resort to the dump pass.  He wasn't standing in there very long, didn't appear to me.  Lack of confidence is a possibility.  So is a called play with no freelancing allowed.

[mikeirwin]

This is going to be a running team. No matter what HDN wants or tries to do he's gonna keep facing the same reality. This team will move the ball much better on the ground.

[jabohog]

I would guess that spreading and motion would help disguise the run? According to your numbers the defense could play run and be right 75% of the time. The other 25% are just dump passes to the flat with occasional downfield throws. Make just one INT and that would come to a halt. If I was Vandy's DC I know what I would start out doing.

[mikeirwin]

I would guess that spreading and motion would help disguise the run? According to your numbers the defense could play run and be right 75% of the time. The other 25% are just dump passes to the flat with occasional downfield throws. Make just one INT and that would come to a halt. If I was Vandy's DC I know what I would start out doing.

I think Jones, Hillis and McFadden are legit SEC game breakers. The O-line looks pretty good right now. It may just be possible to line up and run over a few SEC teams this year even without much of a passing game. They're not gonna beat Georgia like that but Vandy was really weak against Wake Forest's running game. Auburn I'm not sure about. The same with Ole Miss. Mississippi State and South Carolina look like winnable games right now.

[CorningHog]

I agree too, the OL looks very good and these guys look stronger and more in shape than last year.  They obviously have a group of talented running backs and we should create a real problem now for SEC defenses to commit to stopping the run.

We WILL need a decent passing game and it would be nice to add that to the running game as well as a passing attack that includes TE's, "Screen plays" and of course the short and intermediate passes.  We DO have the talent at receiver and I think any of our QB's can get the ball to them, but at this time, Robert Johnson looks like the most capable.

Hey Mike, any news about the "Loafs".  Did Herring elaborate or did any media member ask for the "Number" of loafs?

[HighOnHogs]

With our talent in the running game just imagine how much more explosive our offense will be if the passing game does end up coming through for us.  Wow.

[HogFanLR]

I would guess that spreading and motion would help disguise the run? According to your numbers the defense could play run and be right 75% of the time. The other 25% are just dump passes to the flat with occasional downfield throws. Make just one INT and that would come to a halt. If I was Vandy's DC I know what I would start out doing.

Lets hope they do.  I am willing to bet Monk (or insert receiver) 1 on 1 is a play we can win with.  I think we will be a running team this year but middle range downfield throws I bet will be a staple in this offense.  (like the Clint days)

[Biggus Piggus]

It's pretty clear that Nutt/Wittke prepared Johnson to expect a stacked line, not a balanced defense and the coverages it presented.  That game plan might be better this week.

[HogFanLR]

I caught a couple of articles talking about VU lack of run defense and the statement by some VU players that they will have to stop the run.  Obvious stuff of course, but yes I would imagine your right BP, we will see the defense we expected to see this week. 

We could see some big plays against their D with the running game...if we pick up their run blitz I will take Jones in the open against their DB's any day.  Particularly if we have any success at all with 10 to 15 yard passes over the middle.

[Biggus Piggus]

I think Johnson loves to wing it downfield, and I bet he has no love for outlet passes.  Give him some single coverage, and he may look a lot different.  That TD to Monk, single coverage.

[HogFanLR]

He does throw hard enough to make those passes over the middle.  I did not see much touch on his effort saturday but that may come. 

This week prediction--Lots of running + TE over the middle, WR down and out and cross patterns and maybe some slants (who knows maybe a screen and the occasional play action deep ball ??) I still think we not take many risks.

[hogsanity]

with all our rb's, Id run it til someon stopped it.  VU isnt going to stop it without putting 9 in the box.  Hey, you want single coverage on Monnk and Washington ( or Baker is he is back, or Thompson ( that guy is fast ), hey Ill take that all day.  Look at last years opener.  MJ didnt throw 50 times.  Yea he hit a big jump ball to Monk and RJ hit Baker on a nice nice pass, but, the big dif between this year and last was the turnovers. 

[HogsRule]

with all our rb's, Id run it til someon stopped it. VU isnt going to stop it without putting 9 in the box.

I agree if we're getting 10 yards a carry ( or whatever the number is) why would we want to ever throw it. yes I'm exagerrating, but we should be playing to our strengths and our strength is not an inexperienced QB. A couple of years ago when we won the West we did it with and inexperienced QB (or 2) and a punishing running attack. unfortunatley we got away from our strength in the championship game.

[Oklahawg]

After 3 days of commentary some things are starting to click with me.

1. A disappointing lack of down the middle passes. The INT and one pass to Poole and Monk over the middle (the one with the fumble) were the only 3 attempts to use the field between the numbers.
2. HDN is becoming more of a second guesser, rather than going with his instincts. He was too protective of the young QBs pysche and may inflict some long-term damage as a result (I'm suggesting he needed to let RJ prove to himself he can throw anywhere on the field...or find out that he can't and opt for plan "B"). I felt he's been this way since the Stoerner fumble, but its seems to intensify every year (he needs a huge win against a great team at RRS).
3. Moreso than in any year at UA, HDN is legitimately trying to conceal is game. He wants to avoid getting mangled in LA and didn't want to give USC two weeks to break down film. A much more conservative set of plays than in other opening rent-a-wins in the past. HDN is usually good for a couple of reverses, a fake kick, several "gadget" type plays that he hopes to plant in the game prep for upcoming teams.

Were we missing Baker as a deep threat? What about Logan? Heck, what about Washington?

Were we missing Hicks as an over-the-middle, intermediate target? What about Winston? Heck, what about Templeton or even Hillis?

Better throw to David Thompson this week. He's a good blocker and will play a lot because of it. He needs a reception, or three, to make him a dual-threat impact.

RJ needs some touch, doesn't he? He didn't have one throw with any air underneath it, that I recall.

[Biggus Piggus]

Okla, I didn't see much hiding on Saturday night.  I saw a coach doing what would work in the fourth quarter to assure victory.  He wasn't hiding any magic in the passing game.  The passing game had no magic.  They'd prepared for a pretty safe zone, expecting MS to crowd the LOS to stop the run.  In other words, they expected MS to fear our receivers and play off them while also fearing our running game.  At least that's the way I take it.

A lot of the time we had David Thompson out there acting essentially as a blocking specialist.  Chris Baker's hurt.  Washington played more on passing downs and multi-receiver sets, which Nutt employed more than a little.  We ran out of the spread more and more, because the Bears played balanced D.  When we fumbled, we stopped ourselves. 

What happened after the turnovers:

1. Line drive kick off Fairchild.  Payne Hall fumbled it back deep in our territory.
2. On that possession, Johnson threw a pick, which MS returned to our 30.  MS got a field goal.
3. Hillis fumbled at the MS 7, they returned to their 44.  Squandered a fumble strip by Coe and recovery by Vaughn.  Two plays after the Hillis fumble, Vinnett returned a Bear fumble for a TD.  Nothing lost.
4. Monk fumble of nice 20-yard Mortensen third down pass.  MS three and out, followed by 19-yard punt.  We wasted that one with three consecutive bad pass plays and a missed field goal.
5. Hillis fumble at MS 34.  They went three and out.  We followed with a TD drive.