Arkansas’ offense has found a little rhythm coming out of halftime, with opening possessions of the second half producing touchdowns in back-to-back games. The harder part, though, has been getting that kind of start right out of the gate.
Through six games, the Razorbacks still haven’t scored an opening-drive touchdown. They settled for field goals on their first possessions against Utah and Tulsa, and in the other five games they came away empty on the opening series.
Offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey pointed Tuesday to the same issue that keeps showing up in those stalled drives: self-inflicted mistakes. That’s the staff’s term for them - “SIWs” - and Arkansas has spent plenty of time trying to cut them out.
Cramsey said the 31-21 win over Vanderbilt on Oct. 17 had “the lowest amount of drive kills all season” for Arkansas, noting just four offensive penalties, three negative plays and no sacks. He said that kind of cleaner football is what the Razorbacks need on the first drive of games if they want a different result.
“Each game, we've hurt ourselves in certain situations,” Cramsey said. “The opening drive of the past game was the backed up one.
They got us inside the five. It's self-inflicted wounds at times.”
The early possessions have also gone unfinished when Arkansas has generated a little momentum. Against Utah, the Hogs reached the red zone but had to settle for three points.
Against Georgia, they moved into Bulldogs territory on the opening drive before failing on fourth down. Against Tennessee, they were deep enough into field goal range and close to the red zone before quarterback KJ Jackson lost the ball on a strip sack.
“We got to finish them,” Cramsey said. “And we got to sustain drives.
That's something we were able to do [against Vanderbilt]. I keep talking drive killers... obviously, anything that gets us off course.
[A turnover] is the ultimate, negative plays, sacks and penalties. Those self-inflicted wounds that you heard me and Coach [Silverfield] talk about a lot are things that gotten us off course and did in the first half of the Vanderbilt game, too.
Now we were able to overcome one in the second half of the Vanderbilt game, which is something we're preaching.”
Arkansas also got a strong showing from backup center Kash Courtney, who made his first start against Vanderbilt while Caden Kitler remained out with injury. Courtney had already stepped in to start the second half against Tennessee, and even after earning SEC OL of the Week honors, he was listed behind Kitler on Monday’s depth chart. Ryan Silverfield did not say whether Kitler or Courtney will start against Missouri.
“Did a tremendous job,” Cramsey said of Courtney. “He's doing a great job of not only the physical, handling guys up front, moving guys up front with his athletic ability, with his strength, he's doing a great job of calling the game. And to me, that's a big deal when you have a center that's calling the game like that, like Kitler could do as well when he's in there.”
Jackson’s performance against Vanderbilt also opened the door for another question: did the missing Chris Marshall help the quarterback spread the ball around more? Marshall had just one catch and sat out the second half because of injury, while 11 different Arkansas receivers caught passes in the game, including Antonio Jordan, who finished with five catches for 74 yards.
“Maybe he was the problem,” Cramsey joked of Marshall. “Who knows? [Antonio Jordan] stepped up, and that's what it was... when you have an opportunity to make a play and the ball comes your way, make that play.”
Jackson also added another layer to the offense with his legs on the final drive, lowering his shoulder and finishing a run like KJ Jefferson used to do. He carried 11 times for a team-high 58 yards and a touchdown in the win.
“It adds an extra gap to the defense,” Cramsey said of Jackson’s running ability. “You know, every quarterback I've coached... he's one of the very few that gets calmed down by getting tackled on that side of the line of scrimmage.
So to me, I think that relaxes him a little bit. That gets him involved in the game.
Just so we know, I'm not coaching the jump over guy technique. He's doing that on his own, but he likes that.
He's not afraid to stick his face in there. He's not afraid to get those tough yards, and that's a pain to a defense when when you can do that and add the extra gap and add the extra man to the run game.”
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