Arkansas defense remains cornerstone for success vs Missouri

The Arkansas football offense has definitely gotten better in recent weeks, but the defense remains the key to long-term success for the Razorbacks. Arkansas gets back to the gridiron this coming weekend against the Missouri Tigers after getting the previous weekend off. Sports Illustrated looked at the challenge posed by Mizzou's ground game:

"Needless to say, stopping the run will be an emphasis for defensive coordinator Ron Roberts and the Arkansas defense this week. Stopping the wide zone play in particular is so important for the Razorbacks this week that Roberts, who usually answers questions from the media in a succinct manner, took nearly two minutes explaining its intricacies.

"It's almost like the triple option concept," Roberts said Tuesday. "You're trying to, obviously, [know] where they're going to start the read in the B-gap area and they're going to take it. So it's just stringing it out. If you run to the sidelines, they're going to pop a hole. They're cutting the backside, which we just don't see much in today's football. Whether you got 4i [or] 3 technique in there, they run it a couple different ways, because they'll do it out of one back and they'll do it with a tight end.

"Obviously, with a tight end, they get different schemes based off who they're miking. They're miking the front side in. They're trying to double the nose back to the backside backer. There's multiple plays within one play, so they get good at running it...you got to be careful with movement. If you're doing any type of stunt and stuff like that, people think it's great. But when you move, it's a lot easier to get overtaken.

"It works best with a downhill runner, too. A guy [who] sticks his foot into the ground and gets downhill. I think the consistency on their part makes it a little different because you don't see it all the time...I think their O-line does a really good job working together."

The Arkansas offense's improvement shouldn't be viewed as the basis for assumptions about Arkansas being able to score in the 20s every game from here on out. UA's best chance of winning is still to create a street fight, a 17-13 kind of game in which the offense doesn't have to do too much. The Hogs want their offense to consolidate the gains the unit has made, but that can't be a baked-in assumption each week. Making the game uglier (but without UA turnovers) remains the best path. Let's see if the Hogs can pull it off.