Hogs show more progress despite loss to Alabama

The contrast between playing for championships and playing for respect couldn’t have been clearer Saturday afternoon.

Alabama, naturally, showed a fast-improving Arkansas team how far they have to go in a 65-31 game that really wasn’t ever close.

But we saw signs this Razorback team may be different over the last half of the season. That will be welcome news for fans who are becoming apathetic after a 1-5 start. Only 49,723 showed up with the defending national champions in town and sitting atop the college football world again this year.

“We executed our game plan very well,” Chad Morris said later. “I thought (offensive coordinator) coach Joe Craddock and our offensive staff did a great job putting a plan together.”

It’s hard to argue with that. The Hogs put up 405 yards of total offense against the Crimson Tide. Rakeem Boyd became the first Arkansas player since Darren McFadden in 2007 to rush for over 100 yards against Alabama.

And Ty Storey continued his progress, hitting 25-of-39 passes for 230 yards, two touchdowns and running for 42 yards. Losses knocked his net down to 36, but it was a couple of fumbles that will haunt him.

The first came on Arkansas’ opening possession. Then, with the Razorbacks having some momentum getting a fourth-and-1 stop near midfield, they appeared set to make it a one-score game when Storey dove for the end zone, was hit by Alabama’s Dylan Moses and Deionte Thompson recovered in the end zone.

A score there would have made it 21-14 with over 12 minutes left in the second quarter and might have at least made things interesting.

Instead the Tide drove 99 yards in just five plays with Tua Tagovailoa passing for 42 yards to Jerry Jeudy and it’s 28-7.

“Against a team like Alabama, they don’t need any help,” Morris said.

Still, the Hogs didn’t give up. Storey directed a drive to the Alabama 6 before Cole Kelley came on and faked a run passed to Cheyenne O’Grady for a score to cut the lead to 28-14.

And Alabama’s offense drove 74 yards in eight plays to pull away again before Tagovailoa found Jeudy again for a 60-yard score and it was 41-14 at halftime.

In case you’re wondering, the Tide’s offense is just as good as advertised.

“We gave up entirely too many big plays,” Morris said. “I thought you saw the ball in space and you really saw the true team speed that they have. They were able to make some major plays there.”

Tagovailoa will probably win the Heisman Trophy this year and the Arkansas game will be one that helped. He finished 10-of-13 passing for 334 yards and four touchdowns. He had a completely ridiculous quarterback rating of 394.3 for the game.

On the other side, Storey played better this week, except for the pair of fumbles that proved costly. He also had an interception later that bounced off a Razorback receiver’s hands to Shyheim Carter for a 44-yard score.

“Ty Storey keeps showing his grit and his fight,” Morris said. “[Storey] continues to get better. That’s what I shared with him on the sidelines, about how proud I am of him.”

For the third game in a row now, this team showed improvement. This game may have shown the most, despite the score that got completely out of hand due to a quick-strike Alabama offense.

“Again, just continue to get this offense better and that was impressive to see them take another step forward to allow us to continue to grow our package offensively,” Morris said.

Despite the whopping numbers Alabama managed to put up, there were signs of progress.

“Defensively I thought we fought hard,” Morris said. “There were two fourth-and-1’s and they really came up with nothing on those. I know one play was overruled.”

But it was big plays again that cost the Hogs.

“The story of the night was big plays,” Morris said “We gave up entirely too many big plays.”

They play another team that stacks up a lot of big plays in Ole Miss next week in Little Rock.

On the flip side, the Rebels give up about as many big plays as they get.

For a team looking for a win, they can at least see an opponent they could beat next week.

“Our message to this football team moving forward is we’re going to come in here tomorrow and we’re going to hit reset,” Morris said. “It’s a six-game season.

“We’re going to focus on us and we’re going to focus on what we’ve been focusing on the past three or four weeks. That’s us getting better and getting better every day.”

Which, really, is about the only way this team can approach things.