TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Arkansas came into Bryant-Denny Stadium leading the SEC in third-down conversions by an offense with a 46.7 percent success rate on 28 of 60 attempts.
Alabama came into the game with the SEC's top third-down conversion defense, holding opponents to 26.2 percent on 22 of 84 attempts.
Something had to give when teams met Saturday night, and it wasn't Alabama's defense.
The Crimson Tide defense made it tough on the Razorbacks all game, but especially on third down and rallied to win 27-14.
"Obviously their game plan held together and ours didn't," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. "Alabama's defense is one of the better ones I've seen in my 20 years in coaching. They make it difficult to run anything with consistency inside and outside, and their back end plays with some aggressive techniques.
"They're very, very well-coached and they have really, really good players. They make it impossible to run the football with any type of success."
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Razorbacks offensive coordinator Dan Enos on Monday talked about the challenge of going against Alabama's defense.
"The trick is going to be not to put yourself in a bunch of third-and-longs against this group," Enos said.
Arkansas couldn't pull that off. The Razorbacks finished 5 of 16 on third-down conversions, including 2 of 12 when facing third and 5 or longer.
"Any time you have third and long, it's difficult to convert," said Arkansas senior quarterback Brandon Allen, who completed 15 of 32 passes for 176 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception. "We have to get better on first and second down.
"We have to get positive yards. We have to get whatever yards we can to keep us in third-and-manageable where we can have an array of calls to convert on third down.
"When you're third and long, it's difficult to call plays when you have to get that many yards back."
Arkansas became desperate enough on offense that with Alabama leading 10-7 early in the third quarter, Bielema called a fake punt on a fourth-and-5 play from his own 41.
Toby Baker was tackled for a 2-yard gain and Alabama took advantage of the short field to drive for a touchdown that pushed its lead to 17-7 with 12:49 left in the fourth quarter.
Alabama held Arkansas to 44 rushing yards on 25 attempts - a 1.8-yard average.
"They had our number in the run game," Allen said.
Razorbacks junior tailback Alex Collins, who rushed for more than 150 yards in each of the previous three games, had 12 carries for 26 yards with a long run of 5 yards.
Allen's 8-yard scramble on a third-down play in the third quarter was the Razorbacks' longest run of the game, but it fell a yard short of a first down and Arkansas had one of its 10 punts.
"It was tough to move them around and tough to get holes going," Allen said. "We were battling for every inch in the run game."
Allen hit Dominique Reed for a 54-yard touchdown play on third down with 1:37 left in the fourth quarter on third and 8. The Razorbacks needed a lot more plays like that to have a shot to beat the Tide.
"On offense we didn't do enough to win," Allen said. "Our defense played really well. They were keeping us in the whole time.
"I thought offensively we just couldn't find that groove, couldn't find things that were working.
"You've got to give Alabama credit. They're a really good defense."
Sports on 10/11/2015