The Arkansas defense left the field following Saturday night’s win over Missouri State with areas of concern.
For the third straight week, the No. 10 Razorbacks allowed over 350 yards of passing. There were also tackling concerns, as well as a few committed penalties that helped the opposition.
However, there was one aspect of the stat sheet that Arkansas’ defense performed well in, and that was making stops behind the line of scrimmage.
In Saturday’s 38-27 win over Missouri State, the defense hurried the quarterback five times, made nine tackles for loss, and sacked quarterback Jason Shelley eight times.
Head coach [autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] said after the game that he is proud of his defense for making so sacks because Missouri State’s offensive line, as well as Shelley, provided his unit with a challenge all game long.
“(Shelly) is hard to tackle. He’s a good player,” Pittman said after Arkansas’ win Saturday night. “But we had to pressure him and of course, (Jordan Domineck) got a couple I guess. Drew (Sanders) got two or three I think.”
Most of the sacks were recorded by the trio of [autotag]Drew Sanders[/autotag], [autotag]Jordan Domineck[/autotag], and [autotag]Zach Williams[/autotag], who combined to make 6.5 sacks in the game. Sanders led the unit with 2.5 sacks.
Sanders has been an asset to the Arkansas defense since his arrival from Alabama. Pittman expressed how valuable Sanders is to the Arkansas pass rush.
“(Sanders) is so valuable in that because he can, a lot of times, run you down if you get out of the pocket. Going into the game that was exactly the gameplan,” Pittman said. “We were going to put pressure on (Shelley) because we knew how good their receivers were. We just couldn’t contain him. He’d get outside the pocket and make plays with his feet or his arm.”
Pittman went on to say Sanders is in his element when he pressures the opposing quarterback and praised defensive coordinator Barry Odom and linebackers coach Michael Scherer for continuing to draw up plans to get him into the opposing backfield often.
Through three games at Arkansas, Sanders has made 28 stops with 6.5 tackles for loss.
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