4-0, Ranked 8th in the AP, Next up GEORGIA!

Tide dominates on offense and defense in wild win
By Cecil Hurt, SportsEditor
Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 3:52 p.m.


FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. | The fog burned off early at Razorback Stadium on Saturday.

That left thunder and lightning.

The thunder was provided by the University of Alabama offensive and defensive lines, who dominated the Razorbacks all day long. The lightning came from a steady supplement of long touchdowns — six covering 25 yards or more and three of those going for more than 60 yards — as Alabama buried Arkansas 49-14 in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.

It was No. 9 Alabama’s most one-sided SEC road win since a 62-27 beatdown of Ole Miss in Jackson, Miss., in 1989. The 49 points were the most Alabama has scored in any SEC game, home or away, since it put 59 points up against Vanderbilt in 1990. It was the first time since 1993 that Alabama has scored 40 or more points in back-to-back games.

Alabama did it despite some occasional lapses, especially on defense.

“We probably made more mental mistakes in this game than we have all year,” said Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban. “But we did a great job at the line of scrimmage. That’s how we were able to overcome.”

“That’s a tough game for us,” said Arkansas’ first-year coach Bobby Petrino. “We’ve got to get to the point where we don’t beat ourselves and we’ve got a long way to go.”

It only required one early Arkansas mistake, a penalty for running into the kicker, to open the floodgates although the deluge was likely to come sooner or later. That penalty did prolong Alabama’s first drive, which culminated in a one-yard touchdown run by Mark Ingram.

The Tide’s next possession was more electric, if far shorter. Glen Coffee took a handoff and went untouched for an 87-yard touchdown, the longest scoring run from scrimmage for UA since 1990.

Alabama added three more touchdowns in the half, two on long interception returns of ill-advised Casey Dick throws.

Javier Arenas had a 63-yard interception return with 53 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Justin Woodall eclipsed that in the second quarter, picking off a Dick pass and going 74 yards for the score. That was Alabama’s longest touchdown interception return since Reggie Myles returned one for a 91-yard score against UCLA in 2000.

The two defensive scores sandwiched a pass from Wilson to Julio Jones for a 25-yard score.

Arkansas did manage to convert one fourth down for a 12-yard touchdown pass from Dick to Andrew Davis in the second quarter. On its other foray deep into Crimson Tide territory, the Razorbacks were stuffed on four downs from the Crimson Tide 2 as the first half ticked away. That stand supplied the punctuation mark for the Hogs’ misery.

“We were reeling a little on defense at that point,” Saban said. “We had made a lot of mental errors on that drive. Our players were tired. The defense played a lot of plays in the first half. So for (Arkansas) to get the ball to the 1-yard line and for us to stop them, that said a lot. It was all things we practice every day, we just had to go and execute them, but it said a lot about the competitive character of our team.”

The second half was more or less an exercise in mutual clock-killing, although Alabama did add two more explosive touchdowns on a 31-yard run by Coffee and a 62-yarder by Roy Upchurch. Arkansas added one consolation touchdown directed by backup quarterback Tyler Wilson.

“I was very pleased and proud with the way we played,” Saban said. “I don’t want people to think otherwise. But we still have some things we can improve on.”

Coffee paced the offense, rushing for 162 yards on 10 carries. That set a new school record for yards per attempt with a minimum of 10 carries. Coffee’s 16.2 yards per carry eclipsed the old mark (14.6 yards per carry) set by Shaun Alexander against LSU in 1996. As a team, Alabama averaged 9.4 yards per rush.

Wilson eclipsed the Tide’s career touchdown passing record with his throw to Jones, the 42nd touchdown pass of his career. He threw just 14 times, completing six for 74 yards, but noted that Alabama’s big early lead made passing superfluous.

“When we’re up like that, we are not going to throw every down,” he said. “With the way we were running and the way our defense was playing, we weren’t about to mess anything up. We were just going to pound the ball.”

Alabama, off to its first 4-0 start since 2005, will travel to Georgia next Saturday for a 6:45 p.m. game.


Thanks to Tuscaloosanews.com for this article!