FAYETTEVILLE — Bret Bielema got after SEC official Stan Weihe late in the first half of Saturday's 49-30 loss to No. 1 Alabama. He was upset at a holding call that wiped out a touchdown with about four minutes left before halftime.
It could be that the Arkansas head football coach was just warming his lungs for a halftime talk to his defense after it gave up 396 yards in the first two quarters.
Alabama roared to a 35-17 halftime lead with a huge offensive explosion, then turned it over to an attacking defense. Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen traded punches to produce at least a few positives in the loss.
“I did get after the defense,” Bielema confirmed afterward, then understating that it was “a good, calm teaching environment.”
More than raising his voice, Bielema said it was time to fix the edge of the defense. Alabama went wide for big plays for most of the half, circling the Hogs on sweeps and screens. Poor tackling was the common theme with defensive backs – mostly the safeties – arriving late or not at all. Josh Liddell and De'Andre Coley, with no relief from the injured Santos Ramirez, missed tackles most of the night, but sometimes were not able to get to the point of attack.
“We didn't set the edge and we had a couple of missed tackles,” Bielema said. “The biggest thing we talked about at halftime was there were a variety of times we lost the edge to our defense. They were able to run the ball around an edge on several different occasions and get some very, very quick yardage...set the edge.”
Setting the edge is an old-school term for turning wide plays back to the strength of the defense. The Hogs didn't do it in the first half.
“You can do it different ways based on (scheme),” Bielema said. “At times you are doing it with the defensive end, sometimes with a linebacker and sometimes with a defensive back.
“You can widen it, and then sometimes you leave too big a gap and they cut it there. They did that, too.
“We have to take a hard look at what we are asking guys to do. Maybe we are asking them to do something they physically can't do.”
With the wide stuff slowed in the second half, the Tide made just 121 yards. It didn't matter with the way its defense attacked Allen. The junior with the big heart was intercepted three times – one of them a 100-yard pick-six by Alabama's Minkah Fitzpatrick – and sacked six times, fighting all the way to the end while being hit an estimated two dozen times.
Sophomore Dre Greenlaw, one of the team's best tacklers, left with a broken foot after two Alabama possessions, the first ending after his goal line strip. He's likely out for the year.
There was a chilling reminder of his importance on media day when Bielema said how Greenlaw goes will probably be the way the defense goes. True freshman De'Jon “Scoota” Harris took some of the snaps for Greenlaw and was replaced by Dwayne Eugene late. Without Greenlaw, safeties may be required to clean up more plays from inexperienced linebackers. Can they do that?
“We'll have to look at personnel and see if we need to make some changes,” Bielema said.
That could have been aimed at defensive issues. Or the coach could have been talking about the blockers. There was an assortment of breakdowns trying to contain the potent Alabama front, loaded with first-round draft picks.
It seemed that a lot of pressure came against the left side of the Arkansas line against guard Hjalte Froholdt and tackle Dan Skipper. Right tackle Brian Wallace was called for the hold that wiped out Allen's touchdown strike to Drew Morgan in the back of the end zone. The Hogs eventually had to settle for a field goal.
It was the call from Weihe that infuriated Bielema, perhaps irritated by the umpire in referee Matt Loeffler's crew. Bielema said on his radio show that it was a highly-regarded crew, one of the SEC's best. Weihe threw his flag late in the play, from long distance.
“Obviously, you know that (Alabama) is very good up front,” Bielema said. “I asked the umpire and from my indication, he is watching guard to guard and that was a tackle. So I just wondered why he threw the flag.
“I was just trying to get information on that and I wanted to compliment him. He did a nice job and actually went beyond his job and called one of the tackles he shouldn't be looking at. I just wanted to talk.”
Loeffler came straight to Bielema near the Arkansas bench as the half ended with a long discussion then, too. Whether or not there was a good explanation of the holding call is not clear. But that wasn't the only objection the Hogs had of Loeffler's crew.
Pass interference was discussed, too. Wide receiver Jared Cornelius caught five passes for 146 yards, but thought there were chances for more if not for early contact by the Tide secondary. Alabama was called for pass interference twice, holding in the secondary one other time.
“It's hard when you get held on every play,” Cornelius said. “It was pass interference on pretty much every play.”
They missed a few?
“In my opinion, yeah,” Cornelius said. “And I think there were 72,000 (of the 75,459) who agreed. That's what you get in the SEC West.”
Allen had not thrown an interception since the first half of the season opener against Louisiana Tech. He was upset at being involved in four turnovers, two ending up as Alabama defensive scores. There was a strip for a score early in the second quarter when he scrambled. Then there was the interception in the back of the end zone for a pick-six.
“That's 14 points for them, and of course, I'm throwing for a touchdown, so it's a swing there where we lose points,” Allen said. “So that's 21 points right there.
“On the fumble, it was a combination of me not being secure with the ball and a good play by them. I'd stepped up in the pocket and I didn't see the end. I just didn't. I have to be more aware. I thought I had (running back) Rawleigh Williams for the dump and he got my arm.
“You can't give the No. 1 team four turnovers like I did. We killed ourselves a lot. You can't let them score non-offensive touchdowns. We knew they could do that and our plan was to not allow it.”
Allen said the pick six “was a dumb play by me. I was throwing off my back foot and I didn't get it there. I floated it up. Our game plan was solid. We just made two many mistakes.”
Allen did not blame his offensive line.
“Our team competed, we all did,” Allen said. “Our offensive line was playing against first-round picks. They fought them. I have no problem with how they are fighting.
“I thought my line gave me time to get the ball down the field and we did that. We thought we had some plays against them down the field. They played hard all night.”
Allen didn't seem as bruised as after the Texas A&M game, when he was sacked once and hit close to a dozen times.
“I'm fine, I really am,” Allen said. “I'm ready to go (again this week).
“We just have to learn from this game, move on. We will. We will be ready for this week.”
How many in the offensive line played well is up for debate, but everyone praised center Frank Ragnow, back on Thursday night after his father's funeral earlier in the day.
"You probably need to look at the tape, but I think Frank was amazing," Bielema said. "He got in late Thursday, came over early Friday morning with Kurt (Anderson, O-line coach). I saw him about midday on Friday and was just amazed how good his spirits were in.
"We were not necessarily going to play him unless we felt really good about his state of mind and where he was. You could tell he had watched every ounce of film that we had sent him. Really, he had no issues picking up what they were lining up in, making the correct calls..
"I know this will hurt afterwards, and I didn't have a chance to grab him before he walked off the field, but he's a very strong kid, an incredible football player, but obviously a really good person and a great talent."
Cornelius, his roommate, said it was "no surprise that Frank played. He's a great motivation to us, the offensive line and the team. Me and Frank had a chance to sit down yesterday. I love him. I know he played well. He wasn't down at all and was ready to play."
It was an impressive performance by the fans, too.
"They were great," Cornelius said. "We let a lot of people down. There was a great buildup this week and it was supposed to be one of our biggest games.
"Now we have to move on. That's what you do, turn the page. If it's good, you have 24 hours to be excited. If not, you are down and you have to turn the page. We will do that.
"We know we have a good team. We have a good quarterback who is going to be the same every week. He's going to fight, take a hit and pop back up. He's going to keep fighting. You saw it.
"Alabama is a great team. They are ranked No. 1 for a reason. We just didn't play Arkansas football. We gave up turnovers. We came in to the game knowing what they could do.
"By the same token, we thought we could make some plays against them and we did."
Allen thought the atmosphere was great, too.
"Incredible crowd," he said. "They were into it the whole game. It's disappointing not to win for them, not to do better.
"We had a lot of stuff in this week. We thought we had some plays. We had some routes open. We knew there would be some situations where we could go down the field and we did."