TIDE-HOGS: Smith sparks Tide in rout of Arkansas
Action from Saturday’s game between Alabama and Arkansas in Fayetteville. (Alabama Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
The motivation really wasn’t evident early for top-ranked Alabama. Even dangling history in the face of the players couldn’t spark a lethargic start.
But like so many Crimson tide victories this season, a three-and-out by the Arkansas offense resulted in an 84-yard punt return for a touchdown by DeVonta Smith, another three-and-out led to another touchdown and a fumble by Razorback quarterback Felipe Franks led to a touchdown on the next play and suddenly it was 24-3.
Then, the overwhelming talent of the nation’s top-ranked team became evident as Alabama rolled to a 52-3 win over the Razorbacks that gave Alabama a perfect 10-0 record that included a historic undefeated run through a conference-only schedule.
“I’m really proud of our team for the way they played today,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “This was a tough situation for us. I think one of the motivating factors was to win 10 SEC games in a regular season which had never been done before. I think we got started a little slow in the game but as the game went on, we played better and better on defense and controlled the tempo of the game on offense.”
Arkansas (3-7) lost its fourth consecutive game in an embarrassing rout but first-year coach Sam Pittman bristled when asked whether he thought the Razorbacks would want to participate in a bowl game.
“I wouldn’t have any idea why the players wouldn’t want to play,” he said. “I mean, one game doesn’t define a season. We got our butt kicked. Bad. But that’s the only game that we did and in the regular season when you beat three SEC teams, you usually have three or four wins in the non-conference games and that’s six or seven wins and you go to a bowl game.”
Alabama, meanwhile, will play Florida next Saturday night in the SEC Championship Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium after recording its SEC-record 13th consecutive 10-win season, its FBS-record 98th consecutive win over an unranked team and its FBS-record 23rd straight game in which it scored 35 or more points.
Smith’s punt return up the middle of the field broke a 3-3 tie and got the Tide rolling. The heralded receiver managed just three receptions for 22 yards, while quarterback Mac Jones completed 24 of 29 passes for 208 but made no explosive plays as the Razorbacks dropped into coverage to prevent the big play.
“They played us like we thought and I thought Mac did a really good job of taking what they gave us,” Saban said. “They dropped eight guys a whole bunch. He never forced a ball to (Smith). They doubled ‘Smitty’ a couple of times, but most of the time they’re just dropping eight guys. I just think it’s hard to make vertical plays in the passing game when a team plays you like that, so you have to try to run them out of it by being able to run the ball against them, which I thought we did pretty effectively as the game went on, and the quarterback has to be patient and throw the checkdown, which he did.
Alabama’s defense, meanwhile came up with eight sacks, the most in a game since a 31-6 win over Mississippi State in 2015.
“Early in the game I felt like we had enough time to throw the football,” Pittman said. “Evidently, we weren’t seeing the receivers or they weren’t getting open. We were having trouble with the line games they were running back behind the center. We were having trouble picking them up. I had trouble picking them up when I was at Georgia with arguably the best line in football. Nobody can just sit back there against Alabama. We thought we could hit some quicker throws and evidently they weren’t open.”
Without an explosive running attack, Alabama found the end zone on the ground, with Nagee Harris scoring twice and Brian Robinson added three touchdowns before third-string tailback Jase McClellan closed out the scoring spree with an 80-yard run. The two first-half touchdowns gave Harris 42 for his career, tying him atop the school’s career rushing touchdown list with Heisman Trophy winners Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry.