Slumping Arkansas + motivated Alabama = ugly game?

TUSCALOOSA – It could go from bad to worse for Arkansas real soon.

Coming off a 48-22 defeat at South Carolina, the Razorbacks are playing the top-ranked team in college football whose coach is unhappy with how it finished last week’s 27-19 win at Texas A&M.

“I think we got punched in the nose a little bit,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday about the A&M game. “… I think it’s important that your team learns how to respond to that. I guess we could debate as to whether we responded very well to that or not. In my opinion, not as well as we need to.”

The Crimson Tide (6-0, 3-0) built a 24-3 lead, but found itself having to defend an onside kick with 17 seconds left after giving up two touchdowns and a safety off a blocked punt in the second half.

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All of that came after A&M recovered senior receiver Robert Foster’s fumble at the Alabama 36.  

“In places like this, you’ve got to make people sit on their hands,” Saban said after the game about keeping fans from getting pumped up.

Mond converted a 3rd-and-9 with a 32-yard completion to Keith Ford and finished the drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Christian Kirk in which he scrambled and made several Tide defenders miss.

“Now everybody’s back in the game, the momentum swings,” Saban continued after the game. “So, you’ve got issues. You’ve got problems and you’ve got to be able to play your way through it by executing and playing with discipline.”

Alabama has now won 20 consecutive games against an SEC opponent, but Saban isn’t happy with how it finished last week’s victory.

“If we kept playing like we played in the first half, it would’ve been more of a celebration, but in the second half, we didn’t come out there and finish the way we should’ve,” Alabama junior defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick said.  

Last month, Alabama had a subpar finish in its 41-23 victory over Colorado State. The Tide responded with victories over Vanderbilt and Ole Miss by a 125-3 scoring margin.

Now after an even closer game at A&M, Alabama will look to raise its level of play against Arkansas.

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“I hope people can look at this game and see how did they advance themselves in terms of the way they played,” Saban said Monday.

“Is this a game you would tell everybody, ‘Watch me in this game because I really played well.’ If you can’t say that, you should take a real look in the mirror and say what do I need to do to get better here.”  

Arkansas would gladly take a SEC win in any type of fashion right now.

The Razorbacks are on a three-game losing skid in conference play dating back to last season. They committed four turnovers with three resulting in South Carolina defensive touchdowns last week.

''Everything disintegrated right in front of us,'' Arkansas coach Brett Bielema said after the game.

Arkansas may be without its starting quarterback against Alabama.

Senior Austin Allen left the game with an undisclosed injury after going 12-of-24 for just 84 yards, a touchdown and an interception Skai Moore returned for a 34-yard touchdown.

Bielema replaced Allen with freshman Cole Kelley in the fourth quarter. Kelley went 8-of-13 for 140 yards and a touchdown and interception Keisean Nixon took back 45 yards for a score.

More:S Carolina's defense scores 3 TDs in 48-22 win over Arkansas

After the game, Bielema said Allen is still the starter. On Monday, Bielema said Allen may be cleared today or Tuesday.

Bielema wouldn’t get into specifics on the injury, but if Allen can’t go, Kelley would make his first start against a defense that sacked A&M dual-threat freshman Kellen Mond four times.

Allen threw for 400 yards and three touchdowns in last week’s 49-30 loss to Alabama, but was also picked off three times. Fitzpatrick returned one 100 yards for a touchdown.

Regardless of who starts, Arkansas has the daunting task of facing the nation’s best team on its homecoming after it didn’t play up to the standards of its always demanding head coach.

“We should’ve done better,” Alabama junior left guard Ross Pierschbacher said. “Just moving forward on what we need to improve on. There’s going to be some more tough games. Texas A&M, they’re a good team. Tough place to play. Any victory on the road in this division is tough, but I just think we’re looking forward and know we have to get better and improve on some things we didn’t do as well.”