Arkansas learns the Price for Love in blowout loss to Notre Dame
FAYETTEVILLE — The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-2) tout a strong running back duo in Jadarian Price and Jeremiyah Love, and they put on a show in front of 75,111 fans at Razorback Stadium on Saturday.
The Razorbacks were outplayed and outclassed in nearly every metric of the 56-13 loss, which was 42-13 at halftime and prompted a mass exodus from fans when the teams hit the locker room.
Love and Price accounted for 248 yards of total offense and six touchdowns, the bulk of which came in the first half. Love scored four touchdowns in the first half, and the Irish capped off the first 30 minutes with a 35-yard house call with nine seconds left before the break.
“That’s a heck of a player,” Arkansas defensive tackle Cam Ball said postgame. “He is a good running back. He affected us in the pass and in the run. He just a good player, you know [but] There’s no excuse for it.”
As a team, the Irish put up 210 net rushing yards on 40 attempts and averaged 5.3 yards per carry. The run game accounted for 11 first downs and complemented Notre Dame quarterback C.J. Carr, who threw for 431 yards and four touchdowns.
“We played terrible and we couldn’t get off the field defensively,” head coach Sam Pittman said. “And it’s the same thing. It’s the tackling, it’s the coverage at times, it’s the off-coverage that we’re nowhere close to the guy, and then it’s the man coverage, where at times we leave him wide open. It’s the easy scores, it’s the power play here at the end, where we had nobody even close to the guy. That’s on everybody. It’s not just, obviously, on the players, that’s on all of us. But that’s been a trend now for five weeks. “
Blowout loss leaves more questions than answers for defense
Saturday’s loss is the third straight for the Hogs, who now limp into the bye week with a road matchup at Tennessee on the horizon on Oct. 11. Despite numerous statements that his team has stuff to work on, it seems to be getting worse defensively.
“It was 420 yards at half; You’re giving me stats, I’ll add one for you,” Pittman said. “That’s an astronomical number…We’ve been trying to figure out how to stop people defensively with different people and different schematics and we haven’t been able to do it. And again, to answer your question, we’re working on it as hard as we can and each week we like the plan against our opponent, but we’re still not tackling well and we still aren’t playing great man to man coverage.”
Pittman said after the week of practice they had, he was surprised about what transpired on the field.
“I will say this, I’m as surprised that this happened today as anybody,” Pittman said. “Because I really felt like we were locked in and ready for the challenge that they have. They have a really good team. I get it, but not one to embarrass us like that.”
All of the players who spoke to the media after the loss said they didn’t expect the blowout to happen, but as a team, they have to block out the outside noise and stick together because the season is still young.
“We’ve been through a lot of football, and we have a lot of football left in this season,” Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green said. “The road ahead has some great opportunities to still make history, make a mark, and make a stamp on this year. We have to get in the film room. Bye week next week, it’s coming at a great time. We have a great opportunity to get healthy, get guys back and to lock in and get better.”
The Razorbacks will head into the bye week and prepare for the Oct. 11 contest against Tennessee in Knoxville. Be sure to stay tuned to HawgBeat for more coverage of Arkansas football.
