Arkansas’ 14-game SEC losing streak is over after a 31-21 road win over Vanderbilt.
After having several games get away from them during the “middle eight” (last four minutes of the first half and first four minutes of the second half), the Hogs took control of this game during that exact time. After a Vanderbilt touchdown put the Commodores up 14-7 just before half, the Hogs marched 75 yards for a game-tying touchdown. They then opened the second half with a 7-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to take a 21-14 lead.
The implications of this game are fairly straightforward: this will put an end to any talk about Ryan Silverfield being a one-year coach. That was unlikely anyway, but actually winning an SEC game is enough progress to not pull the plug after one season, even if the entire athletic department is about to be reshuffled.
This game also shows you how Silverfield wants to win at Arkansas. The Razorbacks didn’t turn it over, and their offensive line really controlled things. The Hogs allowed KJ Jackson to face serious pressure on just three of his 31 dropbacks, while the run game generated 2.98 line-yards per rush with only three of 41 attempts failing to gain yards.
Silverfield’s philosophy basically says, if you can’t beat us on the line of scrimmage, we’ll score enough points to win. The quarterback play, the skill positions, and the X’s and O’s will be good enough that if the offensive line can open up holes and protect the passer, the offense will have little trouble scoring points. That’s basically what happened at Memphis the last four years.
One can question whether that’s the right move for a school like Arkansas, where the resources necessary to build a team that can dominate the line of scrimmage are hard to acquire. You can look over at Kentucky, where Will Stein is a master strategist who schemes his skill players into the best situations, and think that’s what Arkansas should have done, given that Vanderbilt is only on the schedule once a year. Maybe! But while that may end up being part of the reason Hunter Yurachek is eventually fired, Silverfield has now shown enough proof of concept to have a chance to do it his way.
Offensively, you can see that every offensive coordinator looks good when the offensive line looks good. Even Tim Cramsey looked like he was dialing up good plays when the offense was moving the football. But playcalling was still iffy, especially in the first half. Arkansas still has zero success rolling Jackson to his right, even though they keep trying it. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, but a change at offensive coordinator may still be in the cards.
Advanced stats
The offensive numbers look great for the Hogs: 58% success rate, only a 13% havoc rate, 7.1 plays per drive, and as mentioned before, no turnovers.
On the other side, we got exactly what we expected from Jared Curtis: moments of brilliance, which contributed to Vanderbilt’s 12% explosive play rate, and several Whoopsy-Daisy moments, namely the two interceptions.
Arkansas’ 122 line yards and 2.98 per rush are both season highs. When they can run like this, the offense really opens up.
Vanderbilt never seriously committed to the run, finishing with just 28 tries.
The Commodores got more yards thanks to six explosives that fueled a large chunk of their offensive success, but the Hogs weathered that storm and produced more success overall.
Vanderbilt’s secondary has been a team strength, but Jackson finished with +5% completion percentage over expected, displaying solid accuracy.
Highlights
Up next
Arkansas has an open week before hosting Mizzou on Halloween.
Can the Razorbacks build on this performance and get another SEC win? Unfortunately, every team left on the schedule is better than Vanderbilt, but Auburn and South Carolina – despite big wins in recent weeks – aren’t much better.