Instant Analysis: Alabama 24, Arkansas 21
Final thoughts and takeaways from the BamaCentral crew at Bryant-Denny Stadium after the Crimson Tide's victory over the Razorbacks.
Transcript
00:00 Alongside Blake Byler and Katie Windham, I'm Austin Hannon.
00:02 This is Bama Central's instant analysis.
00:04 The Crimson Tide guys, 24-21 over Arkansas today at 11 AM kickoff.
00:09 A little sleepy, not the best performance of the season coming off the wind last
00:13 week in College Station when we were there.
00:15 Blake, let's start with you.
00:16 21 points in the first half, it looked like they, after a slow start,
00:19 got going again, put up 21 points, including 14 in the second quarter.
00:24 Not so great in the second half, including Jayla Burrow, just 23 passing yards.
00:28 What went wrong in the second 30 minutes there?
00:31 >> Well, we talked to Tyler Booker after the game,
00:34 he said the team kind of lost their intensity in the second half.
00:37 And that's really what it felt like.
00:39 I mean, a lot of middle errors, mistakes that could have been avoided.
00:42 Offense just wouldn't really click after that first drive.
00:45 They went 77 yards and got a field goal off of a lot of rushing yards,
00:51 majority off of that drive.
00:52 And they couldn't really put anything together after that.
00:55 And whenever you look back at the last kind of four games, I think all of them,
00:59 Alabama has had one really good offensive half, but the other one not so much.
01:03 So this game, same thing compared to the Mississippi State game,
01:06 where they had a really good first half, put up a lot of points.
01:09 And then the second half kind of fell flat, just settled for field goals.
01:13 And then you look at last week, Texas A&M,
01:15 made a rough first half of that game, kind of same as the Ole Miss game.
01:18 And then came on in the second half.
01:20 So what you really need to see from this Alabama team going forward for
01:23 them to, kind of like what Sam said, to beat teams, not just to win the game, but
01:28 to really beat teams, just for them to put together a full,
01:31 complete 60-minute performance on the offensive side of the ball.
01:34 We know how good the defense is.
01:35 We know how good they've continued to play all season.
01:37 The ball could have needed 60 minutes of strong, consistent play from that offense
01:41 for Alabama to be able to reach their full potential that we think they have this season.
01:46 >> Things get a little dicey there down the stretch, 24 to 21 was the score.
01:50 Dallas Turner comes up with a huge sack.
01:52 And then there's that bleep, a little under five and a half to go in the game.
01:55 Alabama doesn't give the ball back, kind of like we saw in Tampa,
01:58 which don't need to bring that game up.
02:00 But they didn't give the ball back.
02:01 They ended up getting a couple first downs,
02:03 burning the time off the clock, and they got the win.
02:06 How important was it to be able to finish the game when things did get a little
02:08 scary there, Taylor?
02:09 >> Yeah, unlike the A&M win, Alabama was able to run the clock out a little more
02:12 successfully this week.
02:13 I think, I wrote about what Sam said about them needing to beat the opponent,
02:17 not just win.
02:18 But they have found ways to win, and that's important.
02:20 The defense has gotten stopped in the game, so they needed to.
02:23 Last week at A&M, they got that sack for the safety, and
02:25 the offense wasn't able to run the clock out there to go back out there.
02:28 This week, they get the sack, kind of put the game away.
02:30 And so it's been important, I think, for
02:31 them to find the ways to win at the end of the game.
02:34 But kind of like Blake was talking about, and like Sam said, and
02:36 like I wrote about, if this team's gonna compete for championships,
02:41 they've gotta get to the point where it's not always coming down to the end.
02:43 Where you can just win games comfortably,
02:45 where it was looking like that in this game.
02:47 Alabama steps up at halftime, they come out, they're running to all
02:50 effectively in the second half, and then have to settle for a field goal.
02:52 And then it was like the offense just disappeared.
02:55 And so we've seen flashes of potential offseason, and maybe what'll be a better
03:00 time for them to start in the next week, a little bit of a revenge rivalry game
03:04 against Tennessee.
03:05 >> Alabama has achieved everything it wanted to this season.
03:07 It's now six and one, bowl eligibility has been acquired.
03:10 >> That's all Alabama fans want, right?
03:12 Bowl eligibility.
03:14 >> We remember Saban's first year, 2007, me and
03:16 Blake got to drive past Shreveport last weekend.
03:19 It could, in that way, if Alabama loses the rest of the games,
03:21 it likely will not.
03:23 The Crimson Tide's now six and one in Forto in the SEC.
03:25 And like Katie said, the Tennessee Volunteers come to town for
03:28 the third Saturday in October next weekend.
03:30 Obviously, we all remember what happened in Nalin Stadium last year,
03:33 where the Tennessee broke the streak.
03:34 And Alabama will look to start a new one next Saturday against the Volunteers,
03:38 as Joe Meldon, Tennessee, comes to town.
03:40 But until then, Blake Beiler, Katie Windup, I'm Austin Hannon.
03:42 This has been Fama Central's instant analysis of Alabama's win over Arkansas.
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