9/19/07 The Arkansas Game
Wow - where do I start with this one? I suppose I should start with the most important point. We won! Alabama pulled out a heart-stopping 41-38 win over Arkansas last Saturday night in front of the best Alabama crowd since the 2005 Florida game. The game started out beautifully. We stopped Arkansas after giving up only one first down. They stopped us, but we pinned them down deep in their own territory. Soon after, Wallace Gilberry tipped a pass and Darren Mustin intercepted it, setting us up in the red zone. DJ Hall then made a spectacular TD catch to put us up 7-0. That was just the start of a flurry that ended with us leading 21-0. Unfortunately, we blew our chances to extend the lead after that, and Arkansas was able to trim the lead to 21-10 at the half.
The second half started well, and we were able to extend the lead back to 31-10 with about 5 minutes left in the third quarter. I had a bad feeling though, because we really missed several opportunities to put the game out of reach, and the Arkansas offense really started to look like it was going to take control. And take control it did! They marched down the field with almost no resistance to cut the lead to 14, 31-17. We put together a good drive after that, and I think that another score would have won the game. However, John Parker Wilson got antsy and fumbled a snap, which was the turning point of the game. From that point on, Arkansas had complete control of the game. By the time we caught our breath, there were 8 minutes left in the game, and we were behind 38-31. At that point, I wouldn't have given us a 1 in 100 chance of winning the game.
But then we put together a drive that ended in a field goal with about 4 and a half minutes left. We stopped Arkansas after giving up one first down on the next drive, and got the ball back with about 2 and a half minutes left, trailing 38-34. The last drive started with Arkansas helping us out dramatically by playing a soft, deep zone until we crossed mid-field. Ultimately we were helped out by a questionable pass interference penalty, and on third and one from the 3 with 14 seconds left, John Parker Wilson hit Matt Caddell on the game winning pass in the back of the end zone.
There are a couple of things I want to say about the game. First, I stated last week that Darren McFadden was the third best running back in SEC history. I may have underrated him. He is absolutely fantastic. I hope we never have to play against him again. Second, I want to talk about Matt Caddell. He came to Bama at a time when we desperately needed WRs, and he never really developed into the WR we needed him to be. However, against Arkansas, he played a fantastic game. It wasn't just the last catch (which was phenomenal), but throughout the game, he made clutch catch after clutch catch, several of which were very difficult catches. Congratulations and thanks, Matt!
As for our defense, I know it wasn't very good. Just remember that we're really thin this year at defense. Don't panic; it will get better. Nick Saban has a tremendous defensive mind. I don't know when it will happen, but there will come a time when teams dread facing our D. It will be aggressive, physical, and punishing (similar to Arkansas' offense!).
I know we have a lot of things to work on, and there are several things we have to correct to have any chance at Georgia this week. Make no mistake about it, Georgia's TOUGH! They don't have Darren McFadden, but everywhere else, they are as good as or better than Arkansas. Again, we absolutely have to capitalize on every opportunity to score, and we have to get them off the field on third down. Hopefully we can recover after the physical beating that we took this weekend, and if we can, we have a good chance to win.
We're 3-0; let's keep it going!
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