In the fourth quarter of Florida’s 30-10 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks last week the defense pitched a shutout. The Razorbacks started three fourth quarter drives — two three-and-outs and a final, garbage time last ditch attempt to simply put some points on the board that came up empty.
Series No. 11: three plays, two yards, :54 time elapsed.
After a two-yard run on first down and an incomplete pass, the Razorbacks faced third and eight. Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen dropped back to pass against Florida’s soft coverage, designed to prevent any big plays. That forced Allen to try to make a big play, which he was unable to do.
As you can see here, Allen’s throw to an open receiver lands incomplete for the umpteenth time on this evening.
Series grade (A): A three-and-out is never bad for the defense. With a two-touchdown lead to fall back on at this point in the game, Florida was in the position to force Arkansas to hit big plays and win this game that way. This wasn’t a step in the right direction for the Razorbacks.
Series No. 12: three plays, negative-seven yards, :52 time elapsed.
On the first play of this series we see BUCK end Dante Fowler matched up on tight end Austin Tate.
It’s a mismatch.
Fowler sheds Tate, and ends up forcing an Allen fumble that Arkansas recovers. Not much else happened on the drive because an unnecessary roughness penalty negated a holding penalty by Florida defensive tackle Darious Cummings. The penalty forced Arkansas into a first and 17 that became second and 17, then third and 17. Then it was time to punt.
Series grade (A): It seems impossible to gain yardage on Florida’s defense once an offense is behind the chains.
Series No. 13: 17 plays, 72 yards, 3:52 time elapsed.
Halfway through the series, Darious Cummings forced a fumble on an athletic play for a man his size.
What makes the play so impressive is because we see here that he’s initially blocked out of the play.
Cummings reaches around his blockers and pokes the ball out.
Arkansas recovered the fumble but Cummings continue making progress to be a suitable replacement for injured Dominique Easley on the interior.
The rest of the series was a mixture of four Arkansas completions, four incompletions and a sack by Florida safety Cody Riggs. The Razorbacks came close to scoring, driving all the way down to the Florida three, but came away to nothing to show for their efforts.
Series grade (B): Not an overly impressive end to the game, but Arkansas was bound to put a decent drive together at some point after failing so many times after a good first quarter.
Game grade (A): Only one offensive touchdown allowed by Florida’s defense. They clamped down after a lackluster first quarter and shut down Arkansas when they needed to. They were also aided by a Razorback team that couldn’t get much of anything going on offense for the final three quarters of the game.