Alabama is now 3-0 in conference play and continuously looks dominant in each game played. Alabama went down to Fayetteville and defeated Arkansas by a score of 65-31. After coming to Fayetteville, Alabama showed that they are still the number one team in the country but there are still some hiccups that need to be fixed for future games. Before looking at all the negatives it is time to recap Alabama’s latest win over another SEC foe.
In the Arkansas game, Tua Tagovailoa threw for 334 yards and four touchdowns but the real statistic to look at is Tagovailoa had more touchdowns than incompletions in the game. Tagovailoa finished 10 for 13 for 334 yards and four touchdowns without playing in the fourth quarter. Tagovailoa appeared to hurt his knee but continued to play and appeared to be fine. Jalen Hurts also played in the game and Alabama showed some packages involving the two quarterbacks.
In this game, Alabama finished with two receivers who had more than a hundred yards receiving and a running back rushing for more than a hundred yards. Irv Smith caught a 76-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage and followed that up with a big catch of 47 yards on the second drive of the first quarter. However, Smith fumbled the ball but Henry Ruggs was on the spot to recover the fumble for a touchdown. Jerry Jeudy showed why he is the number one receiver for Alabama catching four receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns. That brings Jeudy’s total for the season up to eight touchdown grabs quadrupling his total from 2017.
Damien Harris appeared to be back to his normal form by leading all Alabama running back with 111 rushing yards and two touchdowns. The offensive line opened up some nice holes for Harris and Damien appears to be on his way to another 1,000-yard season.
The defense of Alabama gave up 31 points to an Arkansas team who had only put up 20 points twice this past season. While the Tide defense did force three turnovers there were times that the Tide defense which is known to be dominant looked somewhat sloppy. Alabama did record their fourth defensive touchdown with Shyheim Carter returning an interception 44 yards for a touchdown making that four touchdowns on ten interceptions. Alabama gave up the most points this season to Arkansas and allowed 233 yards passing and three touchdowns. On the offensive side, there were some close calls when it came to fumbles but Alabama seemed to catch a break.
There are many things to address with the team such as penalties, defensive coverage, and mental errors. This team is dominant and doing great this year with a quarterback who has yet to throw an interception but the team is far from perfect.
Alabama returns home for homecoming against Missouri next week at 6 PM.
