Defense rises to occasion in goal-line stand
Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008
AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn’s offense hadn’t sustained a drive of more than eight plays or 48 yards when it took possession at its 20-yard line, trailing Arkansas 25-20 with 5: 52 to play Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
The Tigers promptly marched 75 yards — to the Razorbacks’ 5 — in eight plays, putting themselves in position to pull out a victory and spoil Arkansas’ best defensive effort of the season. Instead, a Razorbacks defense allowing 388 yards and 38 points through its first five games made a gritty stand to help secure a 25-22 victory.
“That was just wanting it,” Arkansas defensive end Adrian Davis said of the stand. “That was just going out there with relentless effort and wanting it.”
Auburn quarterback Kodi Burns (Fort Smith Northside ) was stopped for a 1-yard gain by safety Elton Ford on first down, then threw back-to-back incompletions on fade routes to the far corner of the end zone. Neither pass was particularly close, thanks largely to pressure from an Arkansas pass rush that was steady throughout the game.
“He didn’t have any other recourse,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said of Burns’ decision to throw the passes earlier than designed.
Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville defended calling the consecutive fade routes.
“We had to take advantage of what they were giving us,” Tuberville said. “They were playing inside and were giving us the fade route.
“ Those are plays that you have to take advantage of, because down at the goal line when you have nine up in the box and you just try to run it, it takes away from what you are trying to do. You have to run your offense.”
On fourth-and-goal, and with the game all but hanging in the balance, Burns dropped back to pass again. This time, though, he saw zone coverage from the Arkansas secondary instead of man-to-man matchups.
“We pressured it, we pressured it, we pressured it, and then we came back with zone on the very last play, and I think it threw him for a loop a little bit,” Robinson said.
Burns appeared ready to try to scramble into the end zone but found little running room as Arkansas’ defensive linemen held their ground and its linebackers filled their gaps.
“We certainly did a great job of holding our rush lanes and not allowing him a big lane to run,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrno said. “That was probably the biggest concern down there on the 5, was him taking off and running it in on a called pass.”
Instead, Burns pulled up and threw what Robinson called a “jump-pass” in the direction of fullback Eric Smith. Smith was open in the end zone, but the pass sailed over his head and fell incomplete.
The result was a successful — if somewhat improbable — stand by a beleaguered Arkansas defense desperate for positive reinforcement.
“Our kids needed something like that to happen,” Robinson said.
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