Arkansas Razorbacks in for potential shootout against Arkansas State?

Exposing Red Wolves' defense

SEMO orchestrated a great gameplan in the first quarter to take a 10-7 lead behind the arm of 6-foot-8, 253 pound quarterback Jax Leatherwood, who made his debut Saturday night.

The Redhawks took a 10-7 lead into the second quarter, but weren't able to maintain momentum as Arkansas State scored 21 unanswered second quarter points.

The Razorbacks performed much of the same way which is a testament to how these FCS teams had their players' attention going into their season openers.

Arkansas' offensive philosophy never waivered either outside of one run-heavy drive in the third quarter with a sizeable lead which is vintage play calling from offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino.

The likelihood of Arkansas State not having its act together on defense is a strong talking point considering how bad things got last year, plus its struggles to stay in front of the SEMO offense.

Jones' defense gave up three plays of 20+ yards, two plays of 30+ yards, and one each from 40, 50 and 60 yards. That continues the trend from last season when Arkansas State allowed 82 plays of 20+ yards, which ranked No. 131 nationally.

Arkansas receivers have plenty of momentum to build on after having a fantastic game from a yards after catch standpoint, averaging seven yards even playing through contact.

Last season, Arkansas finished No. 3 nationally with 246 plays exceeding 10+ yards, but weren't able to convert those into larger gains.

During the season opener, the Razorbacks were once again chunk yardage kings, recording 22 plays of 10+ yards and nine plays of 20+ yards.

Red Wolves offense presents Hogs trouble

Although wide receiver Corey Rucker and running back Ja'Quez Cross didn't dominate in similar fashion to Raynor, that didn't mean they didn't have an impact.

Rucker holds Arkansas State's program record with 3,037 receiving yards going into Saturday's season opener, and added another 59 yards and a touchdown. Raynor entered needing 58 yards passing to move to No. 6 all-time on Arkansas State's career passing yards list and did just that.

Cross, a Fordyce native, showed his elusiveness to break multiple tackles while also displaying versatility as pass catcher, scoring a touchdown to push the Red Wolves ahead in the second quarter and never looked back.

Outside of a 43-yard touchdown run run by running back Devin Spencer, the Red Wolves' rushing attack was held in check by SEMO, averaging 2.97 yards per carry.

Unless coach Butch Jones can figure out a way for his offensive line to improve its play, his Red Wolves' rushing attack might struggle against an Arkansas defense that stuffed Alabama A&M at just 2.7 yards per carry with just one rush of at least 20 yards.

There should be an emphasis on the Razorbacks secondary which struggled early on to defend medium-to-deep routes over the middle and drag routes tight ends and tailbacks.

Despite the struggle, one positive from Saturday is the secondary's ability to close in coverage to drop an opponent in his tracks.

Fresno State transfer Julian Neal, Auburn transfer Caleb Wooden and Larry Worth were all active defensively to keep Alabama A&M from doing much of anything through the final three quarters. The Bulldogs had one drive surpass 20 yards with 10 straight drives resulting in a punt or turnover.

Pittman blamed most of Arkansas' defensive deficiencies on missed assignments and mental errors which kept the Razorbacks on their toes early on.

“I was more concerned about the missed assignments that we were having," Pittman said following the Razorbacks victory over Alabama A&M. "That wasn’t necessarily the case in the scrimmages. I think if we don’t miss assignments, we would be in pretty good shape, but we did. Therefore, we got in trouble.

"That first drive was nasty; it was terrible, but after that, for the most part, they came back. But we’ll address that and know exactly why they went down the field and scored on us but in my mind right now it’s about mental errors."

The Razorbacks won't have as much room for error this week as the trio of Raynor, Cross and Rucker will be ready to expose the secondary if mental errors and missed assignments continue to pop up this Saturday.

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