South Carolina – HogBlogger Quick Thoughts

Once again, we can’t score enough points to win the game. Rushing yards really don’t matter in the broader sense. Touchdowns matter.

Special teams played well. The defense played well. They were hurt by the short field after the offense failed on fourth down on their first possession and pounced on after the turnover with a play obviously derived from film study and just waiting for the right opportunity to be called.

At this point everything about the Razorback team actually looks pretty good except for the performance of the "offensive coach" – Houston Dale. Casey Dick played pretty well – certainly well enough to give us a chance to win. The freshmen running backs – especially that number 5 guy, McFadden – pretty impressive. Receivers - well, ok, I'm not so impressed with these guys, including Monk.

3 screw-ups by the offensive coach stood out to me.

Going for it on 4th down on your first possession from your own 29 yard line. That was just stupid.

First and goal, then second and goal from what started out as the one yard line just before the first half ended. Ran on second down – had to call time out – leaving third down as an obvious passing down since only 16 seconds remained and we were now out of timeouts. Should’ve passed on second down – either touchdown or incomplete would have stopped the clock, leaving third down to either pass or run. Result – Defense plays only for pass on third down and we fail and end up kicking a field goal.

Next to last possession: Second and two. The last chance we had to have an opportunity to win the game. I forget which yard line, but we are down on the South Carolina end of the field. We are in striking distance of the end zone. The South Carolina defense accurately concludes by this point that the one back offense with two tight ends WILL NOT pass the ball and puts 8 men in the box – and plays Marcus Monk man-to-man. We run three straight running plays and fail to make a first down.

We made a lot of mistakes on offense. The early penalties. Poor pass protection in the second half by the tackles. People lining up wrong. Wasting timeouts due to the obvious lack of adequate preparation by the offensive coach for various game situations (as has been the case all year – “we’re down at the goal line, let’s call time out and figure out what we want to do now, stall the momentum and take the crowd out of the game” (if you’ve been keeping up you’ve heard this a few times from me before - and oh yeah, the band sat on their hands during the timeout). A couple of examples of the usual atrocious clock management (it's a passing down, and we have the wind, but let's just let the quarter run out). There is much more to talk about than just the three obvious screw-ups.

This was not about talent. We were the best team on the field today talent-wise.

We’ve stayed on the field pretty well with Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia. It was within our grasp to have won today.

The defense has had its rough spots but it has come along nicely. The offense is just offensive.

Houston Dale sounded very sad during his post game radio comments. It’s near death for him and he still can’t manage to move beyond his stubbornness and admit that he is a big part of this offensive problem. It’s time for him to say “I’m sorry” or just fall on his sword.

Houston Dale's the one not getting it done.