Hogs put away Rattlers after slow-developing first half

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If you were a little nervous at halftime, join the crowd.

Oh, nobody expected Arkansas to lose to Florida A&M but they did expect things to be a little more separated than the 21-0 score.

Not that it mattered as the Razorbacks put 28 on the board in the second half for a 49-7 win over the Rattlers before a small, intimate gathering announced at 36,055.

That attendance total obviously included a few thousand fans disguised as empty seats.

Bielema was just glad to come out with a win.

“We had some speed bumps in that first half,” he said later, “which was good to overcome, get those out of our way.”

At least the fans are hoping they are out of the way.

The Hogs’ offense sputtered, with three punts and an interception before the first score, a 5-yard run up the middle by Devwah Whaley with 1:15 left in the first quarter that finally produced a 7-0 lead.

Quarterback Austin Allen struggled, mainly with a pass rush that got to him several times and even though Florida A&M had just one sack, many times they were arriving as he delivered the pass.

“He was good, but he’s got some things he needs work through,” Bielema said.

It was attributed to new receivers.

“New wide receivers, new tight ends, a couple new offensive linemen,” Bielema said.

Youth at the wide receiver was cited.

“Those guys need to understand that’s not just a dropped pass, that’s a dropped possession,” he said.

Which goes back to one of our big questions: How is the football IQ of the young wide receivers?

“One of the things that we’re constantly on our guys about is football IQ,” he said. “We have to raise our awareness on third downs, especially offensively.”

Early that was obvious.

It took until midway through the second quarter for the offense to click as Allen found Deon Stewart wide open in the end zone for a 16-yard score and a 14-0 lead with 7:54 before halftime.

“We were a bit rusty early,” Allen said later.

David Williams added a late score with 1:21 left in the half on a 4-yard run, the first of two scores for the graduate transfer. That made it 21-0.

Nobody knows what defensive coordinator said at halftime, but the defense came out charged up in the second half.

On a third-and-20 on the first series of the third quarter, Gabe Richardson blasted the Rattlers’ Hans Supre, Henre Tolliver picked it up and ran in from 18 yards out.

That made it 28-0 and things started clicking.

Hayden added another touchdown on the Hogs’ next possession to make it 35-0, then Williams added his second score on the first play of the final period for a 42-0 lead.

From there it was a matter of playing it out. Cole Kelley got a late 7-yard scoring pass to Cheyenne O’Grady that made it 49-0.

It ended up a big Razorback victory.

But you wonder if some questions were answered.

By seeing the number of times Allen finished passes on his back, that wasn’t a good sign.

No matter what Bielema said, Florida A&M is not even in the same league as a non-Power 5 team.

To be honest, it wasn’t an impressive 49-7 win.